My brother's day was made :).

[derillius24]

My parents and two younger brothers are in Les Arcs on a skiing holiday at the moment. My youngest brother, Craig, has Down's and Cerebral Palsy, suffice to say he is profoundly disabled. The life he has lived so far though is incredible. My parents' entire lives revolve around him and through this there is nothing he misses out on or doesn't get to experience.

Craig absolutely loves anything that gets the adrenaline pumping - loud music, take-off, insane turbulence (ignorance is bliss!), roller-coasters, big acceleration etc. My dad's done a couple of things for him in the past year and I thought I'd share these because yesterday I received a text from my dad which made my day and brought tears to my eyes, I'm not afraid to say.

It goes without saying that Craig will never be able to ride a bike but he loves them. He'd always be out with dad and I as we were warming our bikes up prior to going out a blast. He'd press the start buttons and get so excited by the whole event and it was always a bit heart-wrenching to ride away and leave him looking on. Dad's a mechanical design engineer and one of his best mates is a very handy fabricator so the pair of them got together and got the drawing board out. One purchase of a BMW R100, several late nights, and lots of hard work later dad and his pal had designed, made and put together a brilliant piece of work that will safely allow Craig on the back of the bike. For Christmas last year, that converted motorbike was his present. He's been out with us loads of times now and he absolutely loves it. The most excited I've ever seen him was in Hein Gericke trying on helmets and jackets etc!

As I said, they're skiing just now but, again, Craig can't ski and never will be able to independantly. Obviously dad wasn't having him sat at the bottom of the slopes though! There are 'sit-skis' available for disabled people but my dad decided he could design and build a better one, more suited to Craig, so he did. My dad's a very good skiier but he's not been doing anything silly whilst with Craig. They'd been sticking to the blue and red runs with the sit-ski and getting on great. However, yesterday he encountered a bit of resistence from the powers that be on the slopes and was told he could no longer ski with Craig due to health and safety risk. He argued but was getting nowhere and in the end was stopped from boarding the ski lifts. This is where Bruno comes in...

Dad text me yesterday to say that he met a French guy called Bruno. He was really taken by the sit-ski and was apparently outraged at the authorities not allowing Craig to continue enjoying his holiday. Well why the fuck shouldn't he be allowed to? Dad says that after explaining the situation he stormed off, had very stern words with one of the cable car operators, stormed back and said, 'right, let's go, up Aguille Rouge!'. It turns out Bruno is a former world champion downhill skiier, trapeze artist and full time ski-instructor... Some bloke!

They took Craig up to the top of Aguille Rouge then Bruno took Craig battering down a black run, top to bottom at 'very impressive' speed. Dad says he could barely keep up and that it was 'the coolest fucking thing he has ever seen'. Apparently Craig was absolutely beaming for hours afterwards.

Some people restore faith in humanity. Some people are awesome.

Cheers and have a nice day,

Mark
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CG125, CBF250, DRZ400-SM, Z750, Street Triple R, Tuono V4R

[mysterious_rider]

That's awesome!!! what a nice story.

[daemonoid]

Not a pics or it didn't happen, just a pics! I wanna see these inventions! They sound cool...
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[P.addy]

Fantastic!

A disability should stop no one doing what they want. Good on Bruno

I can't think of bruno with out thinking of the film

[DrDonnyBrago]

What an excellent story .

[neatbik]

Now for once that really is a cool story!

[WannaBeDude]

What's the Todd version ...
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Jogging on, destination living.

[Annabella]

That has made me smile (and nearly cry, yea yea, I'm a girl).

Thank you for sharing with us.
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I did Cadwell!
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[AL-]

An excellent story, thanks for sharing

[Alpha-9]

Awwwwwwwww
Cool story, seriously

Some faith in humanity has been restored
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Fzr-600 1999

[MarkJ]

Cool story

Is it this guy?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bruno_Kernen

[hellbound]

That has made my day just because it brought a smile to my face!
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May you always see the road rising up to meet you and your enemies defeated in the mirror behind.

[Eddie Hitler]

[Dracon]

Some faith restored in humanity

[Nexus Icon]

[derillius24]

I'm glad that's made quite a few of you smile today . Thanks for all of the lovely, positive responses guys. It means a lot.

Mark.
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CG125, CBF250, DRZ400-SM, Z750, Street Triple R, Tuono V4R

[UrbanRacer]

https://catmacros.files.wordpress.com/2009/07/cool_story_brah_cat.jpg

Not trolling

[Pete.]

Great story. Craig is lucky to have you guys for a family and Bruno deserves another medal for his help.

Very cool
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a.k.a 'Geri'

132.9mph off and walked away. Gear is good, gear is good, gear is very very good

[pepperami]

Quality thank you for sharing
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I am the sum total of my own existence, what went before makes me who I am now!

[sidewinder]

Now that brightened up an over wise shit day..Top story and bruno is a hero .


PS: pics of the inventions please

[woolley]

Had a pretty crap day so far... Reading that though has made it for me...


It's always nice to hear of things like this and this Bruno fella sounds a top bloke

[derillius24]

Again, thanks everyone for writing back with such positive responses. It's lovely to hear that it's had a good effect on peoples' days .

I'll do my best with pics when I get hold of 'em.

Mark.
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CG125, CBF250, DRZ400-SM, Z750, Street Triple R, Tuono V4R

[JP7]

Great feel-good story, certainly raised a smile.

Nice to know there are still some thoughtful people left in the world, and that your brother gets the chance to do some of the things that society thinks he shouldn't.

[Mira]

That is amazing, it warms the heart to know there are decent people still out there. Those inventions sound mega.
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