Cassel Research Centre

During radiotherapy and just after withstanding a terrible local bushfire in December, on FEB 6th 2000, Brian sustained a crack-fracture to his T6 vertebra. He was “head-butted” by Jemma, his two-year-old pet camel. Jemma as a surprise Christmas gift from his daughter for the farm’s blackberry and bracken weed clearing.

Previously, the poor young camel was conditioned with rough handling so instead Brian then introduced Jemma to new TLC training programs. However, while cleaning out her paddock one afternoon after practice, he bent down to pick up fallen tree branches after a light storm. Without warning he was fiercely head-butted from behind at full gallop, a distance of 20 feet.

Flying mid-air with the ground looming up below, he decided instantly to land “on all fours” through cybernetic imagery for shock absorption, the way a cat cushions a fall. The visualisation worked but landing, hurt terribly. In hot pursuit by Jemma, snorting with flaying feet, in terror Brian sprinted 30 yards to the gate, powered by pure adrenalin.

On fast self-examination flat on his back, he was unable to wiggle his toes or even stand up. He remembers thinking, “Please God help me, I’ve bloody well beaten cancer, survived being killed by a camel and potential brain damage, only to cross the finish-line as a paraplegic”.

The strange epitaph imagery as he recollects “Death by Camel”, did not seem very amusing at the time. After scrambling to shut the gate he fell over, got up in agony but fell down more heavily, again. Distributive shock ensued rapidly although this he counter-acted because of experience with near-death emergencies. For example, the bushfire nearby the Ibis Lodge farm on DEC 5, 1999.