I had great times as a kid with my family and extended family. My Dad and his brothers and mates were really into 4X4 driving. They were mostly really keen Land rover owners and still are. 

Mum calls it LOD. (Land rover Obsessive Disorder.) Now my brother Michael and I smitten with LOD as well. Every chance we got went camping, fishing, bush walking and 4X4 driving in Victoria's High country. We did this stuff in blazing summer sun,  great spring days,sleet, rain and even floods. They were really great times.

My Dad was a soldier, so we got moved around a lot, through three different states of Australia. School was difficult because my brother Tim and I had learning difficulties. We didn't get much chance to make good friendships. But we had each other.

We joined Scouts and when we moved to Wodonga Dad became a scout leader and mum a cub leader. Boy did we have fun in that as well. My younger sister wanted to be a cub too, but she couldn't, girls couldn't be scouts back then. So, we had a great love for the outdoors and adventure. I still do!

When Dad got out of the army I was 10 and we moved back to the eastern suburbs in Melbourne. Going to a civilian school was really hard. The teachers didn't understand us or our challenges like the army primary school teachers did.

They knew it was hard on army kids getting moved so much to new schools all the time. Tim and I got harassed and bullied at our new school. Because school had been hard and we both were struggling Mum and Dad decided to put first Tim and then me into a community school. We did a lot better there as far as our self-respect was concerned but we didn't learn much.

This is where we got introduced to dope.

For me dope was a release from the bad feelings that I had in my head. Not being confident and feeling guilty or ashamed feeling like I didn't fit in, and not knowing why. Strange feelings that I didn't understand. When I smoked dope, I felt good, confident and my thoughts were calm. 

Within a couple of years, we were getting into harder drugs. We got into mischief and mayhem, ran a muck,  got on the wrong side of the tracks with the law at times. Mum and Dad were not aware of a lot of things that we were up to. They are still finding out tit bits of our adventures, misdemeanours what we got up to even now.

So anyway. We tried so hard to get clean but drug addiction is an illness that comes back so easy. Over and over. It's too hard to explain.

After I left school I worked as a plasterer on and off until I set up my own business doing private jobs. My brother Tim joined me, and we had a really good client list going. 

We became popular for renovation jobs for clients who were doing up old houses. We also did a lot of the old fashioned fancy cornices and I also did the roses in ceilings as well. I loved it because I've always been into creative stuff.

The see-saw of getting clean and remitting, my financial position and the general stress of it all dragged me into a very dark place. There was so much chaos and trouble I could not cope with it, so cutting a long story short I tried to take my own life.

I don't remember much of the time leading up to that and I don't remember a lot of my recovery. I do know though that my parents, my brothers, my sister and our whole extended family were there through the early days. My Dad was the eldest of 10 siblings and I have 34 cousins. (the Fleming's breed like rabbits.)

While I was recovering there were always somebody there beside me. My mum, dad, and siblings made sure I was never alone even overnight. The rest of our huge family constantly visited. Then after 3 weeks I came back, I opened my eyes and my brothers Michael and Tim were there one on either side of my bed. Apparently the first thing I said to them was “Is me car alright?”

So, then I was on the long road to recovery, but I don't remember those early days.  My memories of my childhood have thankfully come back. The medical people suggested to Mum and Dad that it would be good for me to go into a care home. 

But they underestimated me and my family. There was no way that was going to happen.

I came to Brainlink because my mum was recommended it by one of my support workers partners. They have been so great. Then I got a case co-coordinator, Sheryl and she ended up linking me up with an EACH support group called WILD. It was an outdoors program that helped me reconnect and remember so much of my childhood  love of the outdoors.

I was with this group for two years as a participant and then a further two  or three years as a volunteer assistant leader. It was the best. But then the government (NDIS) did away with the WILD program. I felt really annoyed because I know how good that program was for myself and so many other people.

I continued to volunteer in another EACH program YORS which was another outdoors program. I really enjoyed helping those youth and mentoring them.

I have been with RAPAD now for a few years juts building up my skills and getting more confident in myself.

In 2025 on Victoria Day, I was awarded a Distinguished Service Medal by Nick McGowan at the Victoria Day Awards ceremony for my volunteer work with EACH. That was a very proud moment.

I now am booked in to do a Swinburne TAFE course next year to become a lived experience leader. Hopefully in the outdoors. I hope to be helpful to others who have been through similiar challenges to me.

I drive a Landrover. I am so grateful to be still here.

I have a son, Blair, a great young guy, 25 now and a golfing champion, and two beautiful daughters Mia 18 who is a star netballer and a great Aussie Rules player, and Siennah 16 who is a student of Music Theatre and Singing at Forte Music School. They were born after my brain injury. The three of them are my reason to make the best of myself that I can.

I am glad to be here and to be a Dad to my son and girls. Also for my parent's and siblings and the people in my extended family that have stood by me.  I feel so grateful that that I got a second chance. In 2009 we lost my brother Tim. He was taken from us at the hands of another person. That was the worst time. But I am glad that I had him as a brother and a mate for the time that I did.

Living with a Brain Injury has it's challenges. For me it is an invisible disability and if you look strong, healthy and physically able there are some people who just cannot understand the challenges.

My ABI affects my short-term memory. Sometimes memories come back but there is this thing where my memory is scattered, it's not in tidy little boxes like it should be. But I feel that I am in a position to be able to give back to life by being an example and a mentor to other people with similar challenges. 

I want to say a huge thank you to my parents, my siblings, my extended family, all of my great support workers...Well! Basically everyone that has shared my journey and stood by me, and Brainlink for their support of our family. They have been really fantastic.