Brain Injury Awareness week is a time to be open minded (pun not intended!), to the facts and changes that a brain injury survivor experiences. We are not our injury but we are also not the same. There are major emotional and physical changes that occur when parts of the brain are damaged.

Below I go through 5 prominent areas of change that someone who has sustained a brain injury may go through.

Here’s a nice pretty photo of me enjoying a night out as a finalist in the 2018 Altitude Awards last week. What you read below is a stark contrast to this photo. 

4 weeks ago when I went to hospital and they discovered a vertebral artery dissection and possible stroke they put me back on pain killers. I suffer chronic and debilitating headaches almost every day - so what does that mean? I take pain killers almost every day. 

My story has been published globally many times, as some kind of miracle person that escaped the grasp of death and have gone on to live a "normal" life and continued to tell the tale.

Recently (May 2018) I was admitted to hospital again, where they found a Vertebral Artery Dissection, which may have been due to a stroke. But yet again, like the miracle that I am - I've walked away seemingly scot-free. Amazing right?

I'm proud to announce that I've been nominated for the 2018 Altitude Awards in the Pay It Forward category

The Pay It Forward Award is based on public votes which means I need your votes to win!

Winning this award would be a great achievement for me. It will allow me to leverage this wonderful Award to further spread my message of living your best life, as well as advocating for increased mental illness support and education, especially for children.

The man was most likely living rough on Sydney streets, had most of his belongings on him and looked like he could've used our small food gesture. When I asked if he was sure he didn't want it he replied:

"No thanks, I've just eaten. Keep it for someone else who needs it"

Today I am experiencing what I like to call a "depressive episode". It happens every now and then to me, perhaps once a fortnight , sometimes more often. I've been down for a few days now but today feels like it's all come crashing down.

What's come crashing down exactly? I don't know. I guess that's part of the problem.

It's March 2018 and I am a currently a Chief Marketing Officer, Board Member of a Charity dedicated to fighting for the disadvantaged, Certified Mentor of Children, Mental Health Advocate and sharing my story through Speaking and Writing.

Having said all of that - it wasn't a typical or straight-lined journey to get here and I definitely haven't finished yet!

Recently I was asked by 2 different people what would I do differently if I had only 1 day left to live. So many things people can choose to do, would I:

• Travel somewhere I've never been?
• Would I tick off that bucket list that had been sitting around for years?
• Would I spend every cent I had?
• Would I give everything I had to charity?

Take 5 Magazine, edition Jan 25th 2018

I’ll be the first to admit that I was terrified when Merv first told me he had a son. I was always honest with him and told him that I never wanted kids - just a personal decision I guess.

Moving towards the end of January, I've finally realised that yes, it really is 2018 now.

There's always that buffer period of the new year where we are still trying to wake up from the hangover of the past year - with remarks such as "Can't believe that year went by so fast" or "I don't know what I'm doing with my life this year!".

With the new year brings feelings of renewal, fresh starts and a reset of goals. It's generally a time when we assess our progress during the previous year, our mistakes, achievements and steps we need to take to continue moving forward.