How I learned to live with disability

IN 1999, Max Burt was hit by a fire engine as he drove home from work. He suffered catastrophic injuries which left him severely disabled and in a wheelchair.

Max Burt was a high flying London ad executive from a wealthy family, when tragedy struck. Picture: Kristi Miller

I HAD a very privileged upbringing in London. We lived in a nice part of town and when I left university, I went into advertising and ended up doing really well.

When I was 34, my life stopped dead in its tracks.

I was driving home from work one evening when a fire engine hit me side-on as I was going through a green light. I hadn’t been to the pub. I wasn’t speeding. I wasn’t breaking any law.

The fire engine, which was full of water and weighed about 14 tonnes, was speeding and pushed me up the street to the next set of lights. I don’t remember a thing about the crash. Ironically, another fire crew cut me out of the wreckage.

His life turned upside down in 1999 when his car was hit by a fire truck. Picture: Kristi Miller

I was in a coma for a couple of weeks and was lucky to be alive. I had a lot of internal injuries; I lost my spleen and my liver was lacerated. I broke lots of bones, including my pelvis. But the bang on my head was the worst as I lost co-ordination.

Because of that, I have slurred speech and am not able to stand up, walk, write or do up buttons. I spent 10 months in hospital and, to this day, I need constant help to live, which is difficult.

I can’t say what the hardest part of my recovery has been. I’ve spent two-thirds of my adult life in a wheelchair. If I could get one thing back, it would be my independence. It’s not just being able to walk or wipe my butt; it’s more than that.

But I’ve also learnt strategies to overcome my blues.

Max Burt says it helps he likes his own company. Picture: Adam Yip

It helps that I like my own company and I’m happy with myself. I am a very different person now. I think I used to complicate life and I’ve come to realise how important the simple things are.

I fell in love with my Australian carer, Justine, and we got married and moved to Sydney together in 2011. We started a charity called WheelEasy to try to make it easier for wheelchair users and their families to get outdoors and to the beach.

I’ve swum in the Sydney Skinny (the annual nude ocean swim) since it started in 2013. For me, it wasn’t about taking my clothes off. I wanted to do it because it’s a clear demonstration of a wheelchair user’s integration into society.

It’s a bit hairy being carried into the water by five burly lifeguards with their kit on, but I feel great after the swim.

It all goes back to my desire for independence; if I want to swim around naked in the sea, then I will.

— as told to Alley Pascoe

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