At the age of 22, Brad, a notoriously outgoing and gregarious person, was celebrating a belated birthday present; a thrill-seeking tandem skydive. In what can only be described as a ‘freak accident’, Brad and his instructor’s parachute failed to open properly. Not once … but twice. The reserve chute got tangled in the first. With both parachutes failing, they circled furiously in the air like two rag dolls in a treacherous vortex, plunging 14,000 feet to the ground at 80kmph.
What are the odds of surviving a freefall from a plane 14,000 feet in the air? That is the equivalent of free falling from half of Everest.
Well, they did survive, only just, but not without trauma and injury. Both physical and mental. A broken spine and torn neck were Brad’s physical scars; severe depression and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) were his unseen scars.
Brad went from a fun-loving, carefree young man to an introverted recluse, silently battling the dark throes of physical pain and deep emotional scarring.
With large doses of family love and intense personal counselling, Brad slowly fought back to reclaim a ‘new life’. A life that wasn’t like the old one, for that had died in the accident, but nevertheless a new life with a new perspective.
Freefall tells Brad’s story and is for anyone changed by unforeseen and catastrophic events or their friends and families. It is a powerful picture of what is often referred to as post-traumatic growth. We may be broken, but we can put ourselves back together in beautiful, new ways.
Brad Guy's book is a testament to the healing power of human connection and the resilience of the human soul…. It is a beacon of hope for those who have suffered trauma because it shows us that although the road back to life may be rocky, it is nonetheless there. – Sophia Parnas, Clinical Psychologist, Sydney