On September 16th, 2006 Mitchell Brogan was struck by a drunk driver and became a quadriplegic for the rest of his life.
He spent six months in an ICU after they spent 12 hours stitching him back together. Afterwards, he spent another six months in a rehabilitation hospital. He was told that he would never walk, be able to sit up by himself, feel anything below his neck, use his fingers, or ever be independent again.
Despite being completely dependent and paralyzed in the great majority of his body, Mitch didn't care for their vision of his future—and he's since worked incredibly hard to become independent and regain mobility. He's fought to rebuild himself and help many others do the same. Over the years, he was able to rewrite his own story.
He continued his biofuels activism. He became an accredited SCUBA diver. He travelled the world to give lectures and even be just a regular tourist. He appeared on Dragon's Den, the hit reality TV show. He appeared on global news. He was the guest of honour of politicians, civic leaders and luminaries. He went to study building satellites. He studied activism at the personal invitation of Al Gore. He co-founded and is CSO of a social media company and app. He built a multi-location rehabilitation organization to help the differently abled to use state-of-the-art robotic exoskeletons. Started a vegan burger company. He wrote movie scripts and produced music. Now he's currently busy making educational video games.
To Mitch, every day is a gift-and, everyday, I'm grateful that I still have my brother around and that he lives a happy, fulfilled life full of purpose-owing to his hard work, determination, self-belief and the compassion and kindness of many individuals.
The reality, however, is that his extensive care and needs remain incredibly and prohibitely expensive. The pandemic and inflation had destroyed all his savings and his care is several-fold more costly now. His specialized van for travel and to appointments fell apart and we can't afford to replace it. He's even had to sell his special needs home and is now homeless.
This is where the UCHEW project comes in!
While overseeing his care for weeks upon weeks in the ICU, I made U2 parodies to pass the time. Eventually, people told me I should put them into a book and (because I may be certiliably insane) I went ahead and made four! Now I'm hopeful to use them to raise some money to build him a care fund and maybe even provide for a hopeful retirement.
Mitch's Story is that you don't have to let Fate entirely define it for you. Folks wrote him off after his accident and he showed them that you can steal back some joy, purpose and destiny. You can overcome the odds sometimes and not settle for others writing your ending.
I hope you find inspiration in his journey.
I'm not Bob Geldoff and have a bunch of rock star friends to throw a global concert to raise money for him. You're my rock stars!
Your generous donation, sponsorship, or any level of support that you can give, even if it's just to spread the word or share this story, can mean all the difference between his independence or losing everything he's worked hard for in the last few years. Will you help me build him a future and make sure he gets the quality care he needs? Will you join me along for the ride and make sure others don't miss out on the sheer insanity of THE UCHEW EXPERIENCE?
Name your price and *ANY* donation will be gifted whatever choice of volume you deem to choose above. Collect each volume at your leisure—they are our grateful thanks to you for your kind support of this project. THE COMPLETE EDITION—featuring the new shadow LP—will be released later in the year.
Thank you for enjoying this anthology and for all your support!
Bono appetit!
Warmly,
G.E. Brogan
