Huge, ginormous thanks to the gorgeous Kate Lindsay who edited the whole thing and added a bit of ACDC for flavour

Love from Megan (chief helmet/coffee handler) and Clarkie (stunt man/star)

Yesterday was a big day for us all.  It was 6 months since Aaron’s crash.  In that time our boy has gone from life support to walking a 5km fun walk, from a wheelchair to working out in the gym daily, from so much uncertainty to so much that is positive and great.

It is a great time to remember back to that dreadful time and to thank you all again.  From Aaron’s incredible group of friends in Colorado and Utah, many whom we met for the first time, the wonderfully supportive racing community and of course the team at Colorado Springs Memorial Hospital’s ICU.

Then there was the support from our family and friends in NZ – your daily messages gave us so much strength!  And also messages on this site, thanks to Alex, from all over the WORLD.

At the time Aaron had no idea any of this was going on but the true treasure of it is that, thanks to this wonderful site, he is now able to read about a huge chunk of time that is missing and see what an incredible group of people he has gathered around him over the years.

Eventually Clarkie will ride that plane back to the US and it will be so great for him to have you all there rooting for him.  He has come so far, further than any of us dreamed and I can’t wait for you all to see the results of his grit and determination.  He’s one super dude and my rock star.

So raise a glass for him and celebrate!!  It has been one hell of a ride – the ride of his life – and you can all be proud of him!

Love to you all

Megan

We were up before dawn and headed to the Waiatarua Reserve where we joined around 1000 other people out for the first of the Run Auckland series.  It was the most stunning blue sky day and so great to be out in the fresh air.

We had an absolute ball and an hour later Clarkie and I ran across the finish line in true style.  We were at the back of the pack but we gave ourselves a huge cheer anyway.  My friend Toni Ferrier had come in earlier after doing the 10km run version and saw us actually running so we have proof!

So all in all, a great achievement from the guy who only 3 months ago was still in a wheelchair and who has been working out so hard every day in the gym and training full time.  When I mentioned it to him a month or so ago I didn’t really think he’d want to and how wrong I was! 

Here are the pics from an outstanding day:

The Clarkie 100m sprint - in the What Can Brown Do For You t-shirt

Run Auckland - the finish line!

Proud Sis - Run Auckland

Race report to come tomorrow

M & A

Cargo's, Viaduct Harbour Auckland

Hey team

A quick update from Clarkie’s Pit Crew in New Zealand!  We have been getting out and about lately and enjoying a lovely Kiwi summer, trying to make the most of it before it disappears again for another year!

Below are a couple of photos of Aaron’s visit with Mum and Ray to a beach called Omaha, about an hour 30 mins north of Auckland.  Our cousin Michelle, who has been a great support down here (and is such a great laugh…so greatfor the soul Michelle!) was staying there and invited them down. 

Omaha Beach, Michelle, Aaron and Mum

Ray, Mum and Aaron at Omaha Beach

The next photo is from my friend Nicki Williams’ 30th Birthday bash.  Happy birthday Nicki Nu – and believe me as I’m someone who knows…the 30′s are truly the best years of your life!!  Now can someone give me a few tips about how to enjoy the 40′s….????

Aaron and Nicki at her 30th birthday bash

As Clarkie mentioned, we entered a team from my business, Copper, into the annual Round the Bays fun run and we were so stokedto have our Pit Crew set up the tent and haul all the food and cold beers along ready for 5 red faced gals!  70,000 people run it and it is the biggest fun run in the Asia-Pacific region.   It was a stunning day (very hot!) and the views around the harbour were magical.

In a week or so Aaron and I are going to enter into a series called Run Auckland.  You can either run or walk a 5km or 10km route and Clarkie is going to do the 5km walk with me!  Just awesome.  We have already done a couple of 5km training walks which are super hard as they are around the hills near our home.  That boy is seriously kicking butt at the moment.

I will post another update on that soon

Chat soon

Megan

First and foremost, Aaron was interviewed by multiple award-winning and current NZ Sports Journalist of the Year, Dylan Cleaver, for the NZ Herald on Sunday. Dylan, a great friend of mine and Andrew’s, has previously done two stories on Aaron which helped gain National publicity for Aaron and the NZ trust set up to raise money for his care.

Dylan brought along one of the paper’s top photographers and the interview was published as fabulous full page spread in the news section of the paper.

Dylan – Aaron wanted me to thank you so very, very much for what you have done for him. We just cannot show you enough how we value your friendship and incredible support. Although I know Andrew tried his hardest to show you on Sunday night

You can see the article in all it’s finery (and broken bones) at this link, and here’s an excerpt from the article.

Kiwi superbiker Aaron Clark, in his first interview, tells Sports News Writer of the Year Dylan Cleaver about the accident that should have killed him.

GIVEN THAT you cannot ask a dead man whether they should be alive, the converse should be equally redundant. Nevertheless, you can’t help but ask superbike racer Aaron Clark: ‘‘Shouldn’t you be dead?’’

He replies with a shrug of his shoulders, a simple act that two months ago would have been impossible, and this: ‘‘I know I’ve been given a second chance.’’

There’s so much more to tell you about our Boy Wonder.

A big one has been the use and benefit of the Hydrotherapy pool. The wound from the feeding peg healed really quickly so it meant Aaron was able to use the pool, which with the gorgeous weather he was busting a move to get in there.

It means increased cardio fitness without the impact on joints and also increased mobility especially in his arms with the various strokes….I believe even a mean backstroke move was going down – nice!

Another big one has been that our lithesome lad is now on the treadmill. And not just walking it my friends…there’s a gentle run going on!! Okay, so it’s more of a Clarkie Shuffle at this stage but again it’s just huge in terms of fitness and mobility. We’re looking forward to starting to do a few walks around the waterfront in Auckland.

Also, we had another Progress Meeting with the Rehab Plus team which includes his Physio, Occupational, Speech & Language Therapists and nursing team. We have a date for discharge!! Tuesday 10th Feb (Wed US time).

That day Dad will be arriving for an appointment with the throat and voice specialists at Auckland City Hospital and then we will pack up his room and he’s heading to Whangarei to become an outpatient! This means that he will visit his therapists at the Rehab there (approx 3 times a week) and be given
a gym, swimming and speech therapy program.

It’s a huge step forward and one to be celebrated. I have the bubbles in the fridge ready to go and Andrew and I will most certainly be toasting the miracle that is my bro and his step back into normality…after only 4 months.

Babe, you rock.

Love & hugs
Meg xxx

Had a great weekend – Aaron and I went to a gorgeous cafe in Mission Bay at the historic stone house. I gave him a taste of Eggs Benedict NZ style and it went down a treat as did the Mocha smoothie smothered in whipped cream -yeow!

That night we went to our great friend’s Holly and John’s, for a yummy dinner. Aaron stayed the night with Andrew and me on Saturday night and this video of Clarkie sans any walking aids was shot in our house…bro, you still haven’t cooked me breakfast yet…what’s the story?

Also, aaron this week was allowed to have some training in the Hydrotherapy Pool as his wound from teh feeding peg has now healed. He loved it!!

Chat soon

Megan

Honestly, it feels like every week we have something new and amazing but this one is the one that I thought may have been a long and hard road.  But once again Clarkie has kicked butt.  When are you going to stop brother?  HAH – I would say never!

On Sunday at Mum & Ray’s Aaron woke up to find that his voice was back.  By that we mean a great big beautiful sounding manly voice.  Rather than the hoarse ‘whisper’ that Aaron’s been using and which is very tiring.  By the afternoon the voice had become weaker but still relatively clear.

Monday morning however it seemed to be back and in great shape and when I called in yesterday around 6pm his voice was really strong and sounding so fantastic.  When he laughed really loud at something his nurse Wendy had said it was the best sound.

We were due to go to a specialist appointment today with the Ear Nose & Throat expert.  They have brand new equipment there and were all set to “go in” and try a few techniques on Aaron’s chords.  Yesterday morning though, Aaron’s Speech & Language therapist, Victoria, called the specialist and explained the changes.  Victoria then got Aaron to talk to the specialist on the phone and she said there was no point coming in any more! 

It’s quite incredible and a bit of a relief that the chords came right before the appointment as if they had tried (for example) injecting collagen into his chords to try to increase the chances of them vibrating together we would not have known so quickly that they had actually come right on their own.

So why did this suddenly happen overnight?  The specialist believes that it’s a good indication that the nerve attached to the chords was stretched in the accident and that it was just a matter of time before it corrected itself.  God bless that wee nerve I say.

I was telling a friend of ours, Pip Sail, about it last night.  She’s is a top NZ physio and has worked on rehab patients.  She thought another reason may be that now that Aaron is eating the muscles are being worked more and that may have helped as well.

It’s a massive step forward for our Clarkie boy as this was the 3rd major goal that he wanted to achieve, out of Eat, Walk & Talk.  ‘Talk’ was always going to be the hard ask as it appeared to be the part that wasn’t making any progress, which Aaron found very frustrating. 

There is still a long way to go with Aaron’s speech but he’s really positive about it.  One of the things that is instantly apparent is that now that his voice strength is back it’s more noticeable that Aaron’s tongue isn’t moving the way it should be.  This makes it difficult to understand words with e.g ‘p’, ‘d’, ‘t’ in them.  This can be addressed with speech therapy and now that we have his vocal chords working Victoria can be sure of using techniques that won’t damage his chords.

Wendy, Aaron’s head nurse, also commented that overall his coordination is improving markedly and the tongue is part of that.

So there you have it!

As mentioned Aaron had a wonderful weekend in the beautiful North.  Mum & Ray live in a gorgeous bay called McLeod Bay and since Aaron was there last they have totally transformed the tiny house that was there into a stunning 3 level home.  To say Aaron was blown away is an understatement!  The photos just don’t do justice to the view.

Saturday consisted of a day at Mum & Ray’s cafe with visits from Arwen Page and Nick Williams!!  A great day then topped off with scallops and prawns on the barbeque for dinner.  You should have seen the smile on his face when he told me that one

Here are a few photos for you.

So all raise your glass to our boy Clarkie – you’ll hear him say cheers very loudly all the way from Pt Chev.

Meg xx

A massively huge day today…Aaron can now swallow food and as of tonight is on a REAL FOOD diet!

Mum drove the 2 hours from our home town, Whangarei, to take Aaron to his appointment at Greenlane Hospital, where the specialists work from (thanks ma).

It’s quite hard to comprehend as we always thought it would be a very slow process starting with puree and building from there.  However as with everything our Clarkie lad seems to do, he blew ‘em outa the water.  The test involved a video x-ray of his swallowing, following all stages to track it’s course down into his stomach.  The worst case scenario is that substances go into lungs which is the huge worry as it causes pneumonia.  And quite frankly Clarkie has had enough pneumonia to last another 40 years

They tested various thicknesses and basically concluded that he is so much better than the last test in the US that he can go full noise with food.  They even suggested that he could call into the cafe for a bite to eat on the way home!

The feeding tube (“peg”) will stay for another 3 weeks to unsure that everything does go down well and then they will pull that sucker out and I might even have a glass of bubbles myself to celebrate.

Today has been a memorable day as this was one of Aaron biggest self selected goals – getting rid of that nasty feeding tube and eating.  So massive effort little brother.  I think I’ve already said it this week with the crutch lark but dang, I’ll say it again…Very, very proud of you and your constant positive outlook and determination.  You’re a walking wonder.

I drove Aaron up Mt Eden in the weekend (for those in the US, don’t fret, it’s really just a big hill) and we had a very cool time on a glorious blue sky day.  I’ve attached some photos.  Behind Aaron is the beautiful Waitemata Harbour with the main island in the background, ‘Rangitoto’.

Happy New Year to you all

Megan

Just a quick one from me as I am in between cities.  Andrew and I have just flown into Auckland today after going to a beautiful christening (for Troy and Lisa Bowker’s gorgeous wee man, Mason) in Napier (East coast of NZ) and we are now about the hit the road to the Coromandel Peninsular for me to go and poke my nose into a couple of marketing campaigns being run by my team down there.

In between though I called in to see Aaron and he’s in great form today – and we have one big word…CRUTCHES!  In PT today Aaron asked his physio, Lou, when he would be able to try crutches and she replied, “how about now?”. 

So after having a go he is now the pround new owner of a new toy that DOSEN’T have wheels. Outstanding!!!

Catch you soon

Megan