Road tripping & Aaron Baker

Watching Aaron Bakers incredible documentary ‘Coming to my senses’ was a huge milestone in my personal recovery because looking back, I think at that point I was probably at an all time low.

It was early in January 2019 and the future looked bleak because I was confined to a hospital bed in my living room, being cared for full time by my wife Julie. The day to day tasks that we all take for granted like eating and washing, even speaking, were challenging to say the least.

It inspired me. I mean really inspired me. This guy who was told he would never feed himself again let alone walk, 16 years on was walking across Death Valley in the northern Mojave Desert. How does that happen? But I mean really. Think about how that could possibly happen for a minute.

“How can someone disregard such devastating, life changing news given to them by a professional and overcome such mental and physical trauma? ”

How can someone disregard such devastating, life changing news given to them by a professional and overcome such mental and physical trauma?

It boggles my mind. But Aaron did and he is doing it still. For me it at my low point he gave me a glimmer of hope. And that is all you need, a glimmer.

So I had this crazy idea. What if we could get him in our first magazine somehow? In fact, scrap that. I thought to myself, ‘he has to be in our magazine and we need to make it happen.’

The only method I had to contact Aaron was the internet and the wonders of social media. So I sent a DM (direct message) to him on instagram with another glimmer of hope that he might respond.

I remember clearly the following day when I received a message back from him. I actually cried. It still makes me well up now to think about it, because it all suddenly became real. I still had a lot physio to get through in order to be able to even consider a trip to Hollywood, yes he lives in Hollywood! But this was happening and over the next few months I worked hard to make it happen.

Having that goal gave me extra focus which I believe is hugely important when you have such daunting task ahead of you. During rehabilitation and physio you tend to focus on the small gains. The little wins daily which help you remain positive.

But for me it was important to have a bigger goal to aim for and to be honest look forward to. If you put it out there, then you have to make it happen. It aids in your inner drive. It fills you with an extra determination to get there.

Later that year in November our flights to Utah were booked, our road trip down through the deserts and red canyon-lands to Los Angeles about to begin. I was still on crutches, better but still carrying a broken left leg. But we were doing it and it’s hard to put into words quite how much that trip with Chris means to me.

That said, throughout this blog I am going to try so watch this space!