An Awesome Ride: Father honours Shaun Wilson-Miller’s legacy

Shaun Wilson-Miller was 17 and dying when he recorded a final goodbye video that viral on YouTube. Now, his dad has revealed just how low he got after his son’s 2012 death, and how some advice from beyond the grave spurred him into action.

Cameron Miller remembers his son Shaun, who loved visiting his grandparents at Clifton Springs.

Suicidal was how Cameron Miller felt after he lost his son Shaun to congenital heart disease.

That was May 26, 2012. They were living in Mill Park.

Shaun was 17 and his A Final Goodbye video uploaded three weeks earlier had become a YouTube sensation, bringing a private tragedy into public view.

Today, Mr Miller says his son threw him a lifeline from the grave and he finally got his message about living life to the fullest.

In an interview to promote his new book An Awesome Ride — Through a Father’s Eyes, co-written with Melbourne-based writer Andrew Clarke, Mr Miller said the book was part of his new-found drive to do his best and make Shaun proud.

He said this turnaround came one night in 2016 when Shaun, who had been a HeartKids ambassador, spoke to him in a dream.

By 2017, he had launched the Shaun Miller Foundation to find a cure for CHD and help families affected by it.

“Shaun wanted me to keep helping others. This is what I’m focused on,” Mr Miller said.

The new book adds his side of the story to Shaun’s of the same name, published in December 2012.

“It’s a book totally of the heart. I’m really baring my soul. If sharing Shaun’s and my story can help even one child or parent, then it will be worth it,” Mr Miller said.

At 329 pages, it is at times a painful read about a family life coloured by abuse, bullying, love and loss. Ultimately though, it is an inspiring story of resilience in the face of adversity.

The new book, An Awesome Ride - Through a Father's Eyes.

There are so many highs and lows in this father-and-son journey, from estrangement to intense bonding and even communication after death, it is easy to see why there have been a number of people interested in turning the book into a movie.

“It’s important to keep true to Shaun’s legacy so I won’t agree to a movie unless I get the final say. We want a movie made as it will raise awareness, but it’s a way to go yet,” Mr Miller said.

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He added that his experience of unrelenting, self-destructive grief has made him conscious about the need to include families in the foundation’s vision of care.

This will be met with the establishment of Shaun Miller Houses, the first of which will be located in Melbourne.

“If such a house had existed to help me, I wouldn’t have landed in a psychiatric hospital,” he said.

His parents had admitted him late in 2012, worried that his inability to sleep was leading to ideations of self-harm.

“It was horrifying. I expected to be counselled and given a hug, but all they did was medicate me and threaten shock treatment.

“What had I done? I don’t do drugs or alcohol. I had gone in voluntarily, but they just took away everything. I was so scared. The system doesn’t work. It is madness. It was 10 days of hell until my father came and rescued me.”

An Awesome Ride — Through A Father’s Eyes, Penguin Random House, $34.99

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