by John Maclean
And what I can control is setting my sights ahead, looking for the next challenge.
* * *
I. Lee Burton and Heidi Brigham, “Proprioceptive Neuromuscular Facilitation: The Foundation of Functional Training,” FMS Screening, FMS, July 4, 2013, http://www.functionalmovement.com/articles/Screening/2013-07-04_proprioceptive_neuromuscular_facilitation_the_foundation_of_functional_training.
My dad Alex, with Marc, Marion and me. I’m the baby.
Twelve years old and national race-walking champion.
ANTHONY PHELPS
Competing in the 1500-metres wheelchair race at the Sydney Olympics, 2000.
The first wheelie to finish the Hawaiian Ironman within the allotted cut-off times, 1997.
With Johnno at my first Nepean Triathlon as a wheelie.
LISA SAAD PHOTOGRAPHY
Conquering the English Channel, 1998.
LISA SAAD PHOTOGRAPHY
Celebrating after I handcycled from Brisbane to Melbourne in 2002. Kilometres for Kids raised $400,000 for the John Maclean Foundation.
Competing with Kathryn Ross in Beijing.
FENG LI/GETTY IMAGES
Trying to smile for the cameras but I was devastated to miss out on the gold by 0.89 of a second in the 2008 Beijing Paralympic Games.
The broken outrigger, Hawaii 2013.
SIMON GRIMMETT
With my beautiful bride Amanda on our wedding day, 2009.
Cuddles with Jack, aged five. He is my greatest achievement.
TERRY McCALLUM
The three of us, Jack at five months.
SIMON GRIMMETT
My best mates David Knight (left) and John Young (right).
Ken Ware, the man who got me walking!
TERRY McCALLUM
Ready to go at the Nepean Triathlon, 2014.
TERRY McCALLUM
Starting the swim at the Nepean Triathlon.
TERRY McCALLUM
The transition from swimming to cycling leg. I didn’t need to be carried.
TERRY McCALLUM
Enjoying the bike leg.
TERRY McCALLUM
Exhausted, I walked across the finish line holding hands with Jack and Amanda. An unbelievable accomplishment.
TERRY McCALLUM
With Steve Waugh and one of our beautiful grant recipients after the race.
TERRY McCALLUM
My good friend Aaryan walked the last hundred metres with me too.
Dad’s favourites—seafood and ginger beer, 2016.
Three generations.
John Maclean invites you to contact and follow him at
www.johnmaclean.com.au
www.jmf.com.au
@johnmaclean27
John Maclean logo by brand designer Hans Hulsbosch
Acknowledgements
There are many people to acknowledge for this book, but most of all the people who saved my life all those years ago and looked after me in Westmead and Royal North Shore hospitals. My family doctor, Dr Atef Gabrael, and my spinal specialist Professor John Yeo, who guided me through my recuperation and back into the game of life.
I would like to thank my family, friends, business colleagues and mentors who spent time revisiting my story with Mark Tabb in order to put this book together.
Mark Tabb, thank you for your passion and enthusiasm for my story and the hours of research and writing, the many more hours of Skype calls late at night or early in the morning to accommodate our time differences, and your commitment to making this a book we can both be proud of.
John Young and David Knight, I am so grateful for your friendship, support and belief in me, always.
Ricky Jeffs, my friend and chairman of the John Maclean Foundation, Tiffany and the members of the board, our many supporters and sponsors—the work of the Foundation is enriched because of you.
To my agent Rachel Vogel, thank you for your direction and efforts on my behalf. You are a wonderful navigator.
To the team at Simon & Schuster Australia, thank you for believing in my story, for your patience and guidance, and for ensuring this book has the best possible care as it finds its way to readers.
Ken and Nickie Ware, you are extraordinary humans. You saw the possibilities and gave me no limits, and I’m forever grateful to you for bringing my life full circle and giving me the tools and the confidence to close one door and open another, behind which was a world of new challenges and possibilities. Possibilities I always dreamed of.
To Darren Pereira, thank you for taking the time to contact me and for introducing me to NeuroMuscular Orthotics. It is your ongoing support of me (and my legs) which is allowing me to truly see how far I can go.
To my beautiful wife, Amanda, you’re always beside me, encouraging me to chase my dreams. Thank you—for everything.
Finally to my son, Jack, my greatest achievement. You are the light I look to when things get tough, the love that motivates and drives me, and the reality check when all you need from me is to play dinosaurs.
Tribute to Dad
An old mentor once told me: John, the essence of life is to love and be loved.
My earliest memory of you was when you visited Marc, Marion and me in foster care after our mum passed away. You were encouraged to give us up to another family who had two parents to take care of us, but instead you worked three jobs to earn enough money to get us out of foster care so that we could stay with you. You met Anne, who became our new mother, and our life started together as a family. For that I am so grateful.
You encouraged Marc, Marion and me to get involved in sport as a good way to meet people and make friends; we all did Little Athletics in the summer. I remember one particular Friday night at Nepean Little Athletics Club, after winning a few of the events I felt a little tired and simply went through the motions during the last race.
What I didn’t know was that you had just arrived to watch me race, only to see me at the back of the pack not giving my best. You told me to pick up my spikes, blocks and running bag and when I arrived back at the car, you kicked me up the arse. I remember you telling me that you worked three jobs to give us kids opportunities that you never had, and then you said, “I don’t care if you come first or last, as long as you give one hundred per cent”.
Dad, I have given one hundred per cent to everything in life since then.
After my accident you would come into the hospital and massage my legs, willing them to work again. You told me you would give me your legs if you could. When I moved from the hospital back home, you were there to look after me and help me rehabilitate. You were still working, but somehow you made sure I got to and from the gym and the hydrotherapy pool, you cooked me lunch, and made me have a glass of stout every day to help build me back up.
A few years after my accident, sitting in my bedroom with you, I told you how hard I was trying and that I wasn’t getting any better with attempting to walk again. I started to cry and you put your arm around me and said “Son, look how far you’ve come . . . now, how far can you go?”
Dad, I managed to go a long way thanks to you.
When I introduced Amanda to you and Mum at your 80th birthday dinner, not long afterwards, I remember you and Mum telling me that Amanda was a keeper. You sang ‘For Once in My Life’ at our wedding, and that’s a memory we will always treasure.
It was so wonderful when our son Jack came into the world, and I know you loved seeing your grandson.
My favourite memory of our last times together, Dad, is you, Marion and me going to the local fish and chip shop near the nursing home, and having fish and chips and a bottle of Bundaberg ginger beer to wash it down. In the last couple of weeks of your life you were content, sitting outside in a wheelchair, smoking a cigar that Amanda had brought me when Jack was born.
You are always in my heart. Thank you for being my dad, I miss you.
John Maclean
2016
© Terry McCallum
John Maclean is a Paralympian and wa
s the first wheelchair athlete to complete the Hawaii Ironman World Championship triathlon and swim the English Channel. He is the founder of The John Maclean Foundation, which assists children in wheelchairs and their families. John lives in Australia with his wife, Amanda, and son, Jack.
Connect with John
Via his website www.johnmaclean.com.au
On Twitter @johnmacleanfndn
On Facebook at John Maclean Foundation
Mark Tabb has authored and coauthored more than thirty books, including Running for My Life, with US Olympian Lopez Lomong, and the #1 New York Times bestseller Mistaken Identity.
HOW FAR CAN YOU GO?
First published in Australia in 2016 by
Simon & Schuster (Australia) Pty Limited
Suite 19A, Level 1, 450 Miller Street, Cammeray, NSW 2062
First published in the USA by Hachette Book Group in 2016
www.SimonandSchuster.com.au
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Visit our website at www.simonandschuster.com.au
© John Maclean 2016
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior permission of the publisher.
National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication entry
Creator:
Maclean, John, 1966–
Title:
How far can you go?/John Maclean and Mark Tabb.
ISBN:
9781925184938 (paperback)
9781925184945 (ebook)
Subjects:
Maclean, John, 1966 – author.
Athletes with disabilities – Australia – Biography.
People with disabilities – Rehabilitation.
Other Creators/Contributors: Tabb, Mark, author.
Dewey Number: 796.0456092
Original cover design by Pete Garceau, adapted by Alissa Dinallo in Australia
Cover image by Brett Costello/Newspix
Typesetting adapted by Midland Typesetters, Australia