Category Archives: quiet heroes

Told he’d not walk again after a serious crash, a teen cyclist had other ideas.

Fraser Sharp in the hills above Tauranga, where he has been in training for the half-ironman. Photo / Alan Gibson

Brain injuries took away Fraser Sharp’s speech and physical movement 20 years ago. But this summer, he is preparing for an ironman race – 12 hours of running, swimming and cycling – to prove anything’s possible with dedication.

Mr Sharp recalls the Auckland rehab centre where he learned to speak and walk again in 1993.

He was 16 years old and had just woken up from a month-long coma – with a changed personality and disabilities.

Doctors said he wouldn’t walk again and had only an 8 per cent chance of regaining control of the right side of his body.

But Mr Sharp had emerged from the coma with a drive that seemed to cut through it all.

“It was all the brain knew how to do – get back on the bike,” he says. Continue reading →