Imagine waking up tomorrow morning, in a place that you have no idea of how you got there? In a foreign white hospital room, trapped in a bed with a mesh screen locking you in, and when you look at your body you realise you have lost over a third of your body weight. The only thing you know for sure is that you have a ten by ten cm massive tumour in your left abdomen, that could only be cancer, right You have absolutely no recollection of any events of the past few years, certainly nothing that can explain to yourself where you are now? Certainly nothing to explain of how you find yourself over the other side of the world in an ER bed in East Los Angeles ICU ward. How would you feel? What would be the first thing you'd like to do? Person you'd like to see This book is the real life and incredible true story of Leigh Symons. A young Adelaide kid, with hopes of making it in the US Major Leagues through college baseball in LA. Unfortunately tragedy struck, just as I was about to touch my dreams as a result of a horrific near fatal baseball accident where I was struck in the left temple by a return hit at 250kmph. This story tells of my life, before, during and after, and goes over what steps I took and things I did to regain control of my life and to lead a worthwhile and meaningful life, and how I managed to stay positive and optimistic throughout the journey, in spite of obvious challenges. I explore my life journey and explain to the reader what steps and changes I had to make to help me achieve the incredibly high goals I had first set when I came out of the coma, to pitch in one more game after the accident, and to rebuild my life in terms of studying again, living without help and achieving normal goals people take for granted. I explain the steps I had to overcome to achieve everything people take for granted, but with a severe ABI seem out of reach and I hope to be an inspiration and shining light of hope to people going through similar tough challenges with health, or just any other life problem the reader faces. My story is designed to help teach the reader that they have the power and how to achieve their goals and dreams no matter what!
About the Author: This is my first published piece of writing. This book started out nearly ten years ago, in the aftermath of my near fatal ABI and I have tried to keep it very honest and truthful about just how hard life can be with a severe ABI and many obstacles thrown in my path now. I have worked very hard to recover my old life, and I have managed to achieve all the goals I had set out when I first woke up in East LA in Dec 2003. I have completed two post graduate degree in Bachelor of Psychology from UNISA and my first post graduate degree in Counselling. I am now working very hard and halfway through my Masters of Human Services (Rehabilitation Counselling) through Griffith Uni in QLD. It will be another two years of hard study until I gain this degree, but am already excited and looking forward to being a positive influence on all my future clients. I have also started doing live inspirational/motivational speeches along similar lines to this speech and enjoy helping clients achieve their goals.