Kintsugi Heroes
Mark Berridge · 88 min
After a devastating cycling accident crushed two vertebrae and nearly stole his ability to walk, former Rio Tinto executive Mark Berridge discovered that becoming a fraction stronger — one small, deliberate step at a time — was the only path back to himself, and ultimately to a richer, more human life than the one he had before.
On a March morning in Brisbane, Mark Berridge was cycling downhill at 40km/h when his front wheel hit a sunken piece of road. He flew over the handlebars and crashed into a stormwater drain five metres below. The impact crushed two of his vertebrae and compressed his spinal cord by nearly 80 percent. In hospital, as doctors explained what had happened to his body, Mark faced a question that would shape everything that followed: how do you rebuild when you can barely breathe, when your legs won't move, and when the identity you built over 25 years in corporate logistics suddenly feels out of reach?
Mark discovered that the answer lay in fractions. Not grand transformations, but small, deliberate movements in the right direction. He learned to breathe through the crisis. He reached out for help even when shame told him to isolate. He noticed the people around him, the pain specialist who adjusted his medication to ease his mental load, the physiotherapist who understood when to push and when to offer crutches instead of walking sticks, the friends who showed up at exactly the right moment. He learned that vulnerability, not invulnerability, was the path to real strength. Over time, these fractions added up. A lap around the oval. An article on LinkedIn. A book. A TEDx talk. A life that looked different from the one he planned, but richer in ways he could not have predicted.
This is a story for anyone who has felt their world shatter and wondered if they could ever feel whole again. Mark's answer is quieter than it sounds: you don't have to. You just have to become a fraction stronger than you were yesterday.
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Kintsugi Heroes · Registered Australian not-for-profit · kintsugiheroes.com.au ↗