Media and Press

Dare to Fly
Alfred Holland, Newcastle Herald, 07 Feb 1998

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THAT life is unfair is the experience of many: the vast quantity of undeserved and innocent suffering has always found men and women searching for answers. Even Job, the classical sufferer, received a blunt and not very reasoned response from his maker. But it is how people cope with their sufferings, innocent or otherwise, that makes the difference between buoyant new life or embittered corrosive non-living in the slow lane.

In 1986, Janine Shepherd was doing a cycling training run from Sydney to the Blue Mountains in preparation for the 1988 Winter Olympics. She was struck from behind by a utility truck and suffered a broken neck, back broken in four places, broken arm and collarbone, five broken ribs, broken bones in feet, head and internal injuries, severe blood loss and much more. There followed months of painful rehabilitation and the determination to rebuild a new life. She recounted all this in her best-selling book, Never tell me Never.

She has written a sequel that describes an almost miraculous new lifestyle: how she learned to fly (acrobatically) and is now an instructor, learned to type, has written two books (no ghosting), appeared on 60 Minutes, given birth to two children, and is a member of the international speaking circuit bringing motivational messages to small community groups as well as corporations.

It is a story of great disciplined courage and determination which will, by osmosis, encourage many. It is simply written, easy to read with no pretension to high literary skill. It is an ordinary account of an extraordinary woman recalling the happenings of her everyday post-accident life.

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