Thank you to ABC Books for allowing me to tell my story, especially Stuart Neal, who believed in it enough to allow it to happen, with lots of encouragement from Australian Story’s Caroline Jones and my book agent Selwa Anthony. Thanks to ABC Books managing editor Brigitta Doyle, editor Jacquie Kent, and copy editor Anne Reilly, who all helped make it a better book thanks also to publicist Jane Finemore and Alan Davidson.
Thanks to many others, including my spinal unit doctor Bill Davies, nurse Libby Urquhart, who remembers better than me the night I almost died, her sister Dr Sue Urquhart, for her medical advice, ABC Television’s Australian Story executive producer Deb Fleming, producer Caitlin Shea, cameraman Anthony Sines and editor Roger Carter; for their memories of filming my story and continuing friendship.
Thanks to my mentor Mike Warden and his wife Marg, for their inspirational love story and involvement in my own romance, Jim Graham for his guiding hand in my youth, and John Ryan for a wonderful friendship through thick and thin, and all their memories of those times.
Thanks also to Bruce McMullen, who taught me to fly and climb my own personal Mount Kosciusko, Richard Browning for his recollections of those early months in the spinal unit, and other friends and family who have helped to fill in the gaps with their stories. This book would not have been complete without them.
Special thanks must go to my parents, Graham and Libby Bailey, brother Bill and sister Kate, for their support, love and strength during my rollercoaster life — despite the fact their lives were irrevocably changed as a result of my accident. They also gave their memories freely.
And finally, none of this would have come to fruition if it hadn’t been for the love-of-my-life and best mate Jenny, who spent months researching, interviewing, transcribing and writing this book. It never would have happened if it hadn’t been for her encouragement and belief that my story should be told.