In June 2010, I was hit by a speeding car as I crossed a road on a bicycle. The resulting head injury left me in a coma with multiple fractured bones for 3.5 days.Doctors told me family I would either wake up with no memories, no power of speech and exist in a vegetable like state for around one year until my body would give out OR I would die.I woke up and thought “What happened!?!”.I was 19 years old when this happened, having experienced a complex traumatic childhood involving neglect in a strict Jehovah’s Witness family upbringing, heartbreak and alcoholism as a teenager leading to self harm and hospitalisation due to suicidal ideation and attempts.This accident came almost one year after making a conscious decision to try to live, almost one year sober and genuinely the happiest I had ever been.My healing journey was challenging mentally and physically, medical specialists telling me I would never work again, never ride bmx bikes again and that my survival was a miracle and I might have six years of life ahead of me or I might have sixty. Their advice was to go out and live my life, and that’s exactly what I’ve tried to do.

Restorative Practice Trainer and Facilitator working mainly in the education sector from primary to university level across Cornwall as part of RJ Working CIC.

No-dig vegetable gardening.

Plant area sales assistant - My first ‘real job’ after years living on benefits as an alcoholic teenager.This is where my interest in studying horticulture quickly appeared and drove me to studying at a local college.Despite the six month hiatus as a result of my brain injury the garden centre kindly honoured my position and I was able to return when rehabilitated.I also finished my college diploma on time and with a distinction level achieved in every single module in spite of the six month gap.