"The Hardest Part of Life Is Living It"

Twenty years ago (this month) my life changed. I was three years old when I fell out of a recreational speed boat and was caught in the propeller. My right leg was broken in eight different places in a matter of seconds. I didn’t realize it at the time, but what occurred that day would alter my life forever.

Countless surgeries, physiotherapy hours and a lot of love and support later; I can now walk with barely so much as a limp. The most trying part of my story is undoubtedly the procedures I underwent to correct a length discrepancy. They involved the doctors breaking my bones and leaving a gap between the separated parts. They then secured a stainless steel contraption, known as the Illizarov apparatus, onto and into my leg. By adjusted screws with small wrenches my broken bones were pulled further apart. This lasted over a period of six to thirteen months. In that time the bones would try to heal as the gap between them became wider. Eventually the gap is filled with new bone.

My leg still carries the telltale signs of the event that changed my life and the aftermath, but those scars aren’t who I am, they only affected who I became.

It’s with this in mind that I am beginning a photo project. I want to photograph anyone who has survived anything; an accident, loss of a loved one, suicide, cancer, addiction, career ending injury, abuse, pain, suffering and loss.

If you or anyone you know has not only survived but continued to live life, I would love to photograph them. So here’s the first picture of what I hope will be many more to come....