Janine Shepherd – Learning To Fly

Janine Shepherd was a 24 year old cross country skier in training for the winter Olympics when her life took a dramatic turn in 1986, hit by a truck while training in the Blue Mountains. Janine suffered terrible spinal cord injuries breaking her neck and back. Doctors and family feared she would not survive. Her incredible strength and determination forged an inspirational life story of great heartache, triumph and extraordinary achievement.

ONE SPLIT SECOND

For an Olympian a split second can mean the difference between winning or losing. Life was about to prove just how definitive a split second would be for Janine. Her neck and back were broken in six places as well as five ribs, right arm, clavicle and foot bones. Her right side was torn open and filled with gravel. Severe facial blows opened her forehead exposing the skull. Janine also suffered internal injuries losing near five litres of blood.

Janine in part attributes her survival to her fitness and strong athletic physical condition. “I think maybe all the training I’d done up to that point was to prepare me for surviving this accident.”

ANGEL ON MY SHOULDER

Speaking about her life hanging in the balance in the Prince Henry Hospital in Sydney 1988 Janine recalls, “It was a great struggle for me to just even stay connected in this world. It’s sort of hard and difficult to talk about. I know that I went to the other side and I came back again, and I think what really kept me here in this life was the fact that my father was sitting next to my bed and holding my hand, I think that was my lifeline.

THE GREATEST RACE

“To me it’s not really about learning to walk again, it’s about learning to live again and that was what was important to me. Physically I lost so much. For an athlete, I lost everything that was important, which was my physical body. I spent six months in hospital, you knw, lying in that spinal ward and it was just a dreadful time.”

Janine Shepherd RAFF Flight

SPREADING WINGS TO FLY

Janine’s determined will and positive attitude shone through conquering new mountains. Pushing through pain barriers in a new direction, never happy with good enough. For many with quadriplegia or paraplegia the thought ‘If I can’t walk, I’ll fly’ remains just a thought. Not Janine, lifted into her first flight in a full body plaster cast. “The moment I started flying, any thoughts of depression were gone because I had something to focus on. To me it was like I had this new direction, this new passion. Every waking moment was about flying. I just completely threw myself into flying, so it became my life.”

Within a year Janine Shepherd not only gained her private pilot’s licence as a partial paraplegic but a commercial pilot’s licence, Instrument Rating, Twin Engine Rating and her Instructors Rating. In 1988 Janine fulfilled a life long dream riding in a Royal Australian Air Force F/A-18 jet fighter. Pushing her body beyond it’s physical limits is second nature to Janine. When asked, “What is it that’s making you move?” Janine replied, “Just the messages, I’ve had a lot of practice and I guess, retrained my nervous system to be able to put one foot in front of the other.”

Step by painful step Janine went on to become a fully qualified aerobatics instructor, completed a University degree in Physical Education. Participated as an Olympic torch runner Newcastle to Gosford in 2000. Valiantly attempted to make the 2004 Paralympic Dressage team forced to withdraw due to cronic back pain. Having once been told she would never be able, Janine believes her greatest achievements are her three children.

Janine Shepherd – Never Tell Me Never

NEVER TELL ME NEVER

Janine Shepherd’s first publication bacame a best-seller. The book titled Never Tell Me Never (1995) is her story, a testament to the power of the human spirit, and one that will move and inspire all who read it.

Doctors had warned her parents she was not expected to survive, and if by some miracle she recovered, she would never walk again. Janine drew on her champion athlete spirit from deep within and fought to heal her broken body and crushed morale.

The runaway success of Never Tell Me Never motivated Janine to author three more inspiring publications. Janine Shepherd’s series of autobiographies have become classics in the survivor genre and have all become best-sellers.

Her inspiring life story was made into a feature film also entitled Never Tell Me Never, featuring Claudia Karvan and Michael Caton.

Janine Shepherd – Dare To Fly

DARE TO FLY

A sequel that describes an almost miraculous new family lifestyle Dare To Fly (1997) continues on from where Never Tell Me Never ended. It takes us through the publication of her first book, the birth of her first two children and careers as a pilot and a motivational public speaker.

Janine focuses on the love and strength gathered from her family and the people around her who have been such a tremendous support, forever encouraging her to remain positive and keep on pushing forward. Suffering terrible pain from her partial paraplegic Janine decides to undergo further corrective surgery.

Dare To Fly is an easy to read ordinary account of this extraordinary womans journey through life. Recalling the happenings of her everyday post-accident life Janine says, “We all need to know that no matter what happens to us in this life, we are never alone.” This statement was to become more prophetic than Janine first realized.

Janine Shepherd – Reaching For The Stars

REACHING FOR THE STARS

In response to overwhelming interest and thousands of requests from readers Janine Shepherd compiled Reaching For The Stars – Reflections on a journey through life and living (1998).

A retrospective collection of poems and passages used in her motivational speaking engagements, some of which were sent to her by people undergoing similiar trials.

Janine brings together her favorite inspirational verses and motivational quotes as well as many observations of her own. The book again takes the familiar journey form culminating in the thoughts and reflections upon her lifes story and what her unbelievable journey has taught her; that love is the most important thing of all — without it we are nothing — if we love and are loved we are capable of anything! Janine states, “Your destiny can be a matter of choice or of chance.”

Janine Shepherd – On My Own Two Feet

ON MY OWN TWO FEET

Janine Shepherd’s brutally honest account of the struggle to save herself and her family from a devastating illness which threatened to destroy everything she held dear.

On My Own Two Feet (2007) takes us through moving to the Southern Highlands where Janine’s love for horses blossomed teaching her daughter the joys of riding. Then a devastating phone call came, “I am calling to let you know that your husband has fallen sick.”

Ill, husband Tim grows increasingly distant from Janine much to her anguish, “I hope that one day perhaps he will read it and understand why I did what I had to do.”

A touching uplifting story, On My Own Two Feet is told with the characteristic honesty, generous warmth, integrity and?sense of humour Janine is renowned for. Traits that saw her endure and conquer dark days.

LIFE TODAY AFTER SPINAL CORD INJURY

Janine Shepherd is a popular keynote and corporate motivational speaker traveling extensively throughout Australia and abroad inspiring and educating others with her captivating stories of courage, strength and determination. Janine and her three children Annabel, Charlotte, Angus and their Blue Heeler cattle dog Buddy currently reside in Avalon nestled in the Southern Highlands of NSW.

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ACCOLADES AND AWARDS

Janine Shepherd was one of only ten recipients of the Outstanding Young Persons of the World award from Junior Chamber International in 1998. In 1999 named Australian Achiever by the National Australian Day Council. In 2001 made the Australia Day honours list as an appointed Member in the General Division of the Order of Australia. Janine Shepherd has served on the board of the Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) as the youngest and only female director. She is also a patron of the Australasian Spinal Research Trust committed to helping find a cure for spinal cord injury in the near future.

Editors note: Janine and I were both 24 at the time of our accident though six years apart. I first became aware of her incredible story as a quadriplegic unable to move anything but my head in hospital when my father narrated an audio version of Never Tell Me Never. I have followed Janine’s triumphs and tribulations since, drawing great strength and inspiration from her incredible fortitude and grace in the face of adversity.

Janine Shepherd OA.
Mother, Author, Aviator, Motivational Speaker.
Janine Shepherd.com