Run It Back

Every 15 minutes, a Kiwi suffers a brain injury.

Last year, after a traumatic brain injury of my own, I became one of them.

Through my experience, I learned how challenging, isolating and terrifying living with a brain injury really is.

Even as a doctor, I had no idea what my life would look like after a brain injury.

Nobody should have to go through it alone.

That's why in T-6 months I'll be running it back — the length of Aotearoa, a marathon a day — for Brain Injury New Zealand, our country's national organisation giving a voice to the 'silent injury'.

Through their 14 regional associations, they offer education, support, and advocacy for the thousands of Kiwis affected by brain injury each year.

Honestly, I'm bloody scared to be sharing my story as part of this journey.

I would much rather run up the kms quietly, but my hope is that sharing my experience through a vulnerable time in my life might reach at least one person who was in my position, suffering in silence.

That it might help connect them to the services delivered by the amazing charities I wish I'd known about when I was struggling.

That's why I'm doing it scared — with an incredible team around me to support me on this mammoth of a mission.

One step at a time, come along and run it back — for Brain Injury New Zealand, and for every Kiwi walking with the silent injury.