Our chat today is with world champion para-surfer Sam Bloom, and her husband Cam. Born on the Northern Beaches of Sydney, Sam had everything she had always dreamed of. She’d travelled extensively, fulfilled her childhood dream of becoming a nurse and was a happily married mother of three young boys.
But without warning, the dream turned into a nightmare when on a 2013 family holiday in Thailand, Sam fell through a rotten balcony railing and crashed six metres onto the concrete below.
Lucky to be alive, she’d suffered devastating injuries, including severe damage to her spinal cord that left her paralysed from the chest down. Broken and hopeless, Sam reached her outer limits of physical and mental suffering. But with courage, determination and a little help from an unlikely feathered friend, she made her way back from the edge, scarred but undefeated. 'How' is the subject of this podcast episode.
6:00 Sam and Cam’s background, and how they met…
11:30 Talking the importance of travel in the like of the Blooms
16:00 That fateful trip to Thailand
18:30 Moving hospital to hospital… to hospital
19:40 Sam’s recollection of the incident
21:20 ‘Memories are so subjective’
25:00 When Sam realises the severity of the incident…
26:20 Cam is mopping up and trying to hold it together while Sam spends months in hospital
30:00 Sam arrives home… and its not how you think she would be
32:00 Enter penguin .. a fluffy magpie chick. Life changes
36:00 Cam and his accompanying photography. What he couldn’t photograph
38:20 How about the impact on the boys?
43:00 How the book started
52:00 Recruiting the actors for the movie version of the book
54:10 Doing time with their Hollywood counterparts… and shooting in their own home
59:15 Sam reconnects with her passion of surfing
1:02:00 SurfLakes Yeppoon … artificial surf facility in Queensland
1:05:00 Australian Championships- Surfing …and what’s next
External Links
https://sambloom.com.au
https://www.facebook.com/sambloomaustralia
https://www.instagram.com/samjbloom/
Contact Us
www.unforgiving60.com
Email us at debrief@unforgiving60.com
Instagram, Twitter: @Unforgiving60
THE RESILIENCE RETREAT INFORMATION
Be guests of the authors of The Resilience Shield between 27-30 October 2022 on Fitzroy Island off Cairns, North Queensland, Australia
Info and bookings here: https://resilienceshield.com/retreat/
Music
The Externals – available on Spotify
Mitchell Martin- – available on Spotify
S1E27- Sam Penny: English Channel Swimmer- 'I didn't come this far to only come this far'
S1E26- General Jim Molan, AO, DSC - No Backward Step
@RV10 – On Susan Saleeba and Chris Collard, Servant Leadership, Psychopaths and Ben’s Leather Vest
S1E25- Chris Collard- No Barriers! From Jail to World Champion in 5 Years.
S1E24- Susan Saleeba- All Give, No Take: Inspiring Hope for Kenyan Children
@RV9- On Phil HSC & Sans Tattoo, Alaskan Real Estate Deals, Junior Leadership and Life without Consequences
S1E23- Marc Wohling- Movement is a Story
S1E22- Conversations with Mandela ... and Subsequent Corporate Combat - Sans Tattoo
S1E21- The Entrepreneur's Entrepreneur: From Little Things... with Phil HSC
@RV8- On Jess Dane, Greg Wallace, Andrew Leigh's Interview of Ben, Art and Playing Music on Operations
Special Episode- On SAS Leadership, Elite Fitness and Why Specialisation is for Insects- Ben Pronk, DSC Interviewed by Andrew Leigh, MP (via The Good Life Podcast)
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S1E19- Motorsports IS for Girls! Jessica Dane- Red Bull Holden Racing Team & Triple Eight Race Engineering
@RV7- On Matt Hall, the 2nd Battlefield, Supposedly Irrelevant Factors and Recent Travel
S1E18- (Extremely!) Top Gun- Matt Hall- Australia's (Only) Elite Red Bull Air Race Pilot
S1E17- The 2nd Battlefield! Applying the Principles of War to the Battlefield of Business
@RV6- On Two Andrews and SAS Band The Externals. Questions from Listeners
S1E16- Who Sings Wins! The Stories and Music of the SAS Rock Band- The Externals
S1E15b- A Tale of Two Andrews – Two Federal Politicians / But No Politics! Andrew Hastie (MP) and Andrew Leigh (MP)
S1E15a- A Tale of Two Andrews – Two Federal Politicians / But No Politics! Andrew Hastie (MP) and Andrew Leigh (MP)
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