Life can change in a heartbeat. One moment, you are young, healthy and able bodied. The next, your life is changed forever. Driving down the road in a sports car or armored Hummer, you round the corner and wham. Life is never the same.
You could be Rick Allen, who at age 15 , is a member of Def Leppard. By 21, you are in another world. Young, handsome and the member of one of the biggest rock bands on the planet; what more would one person ask for? You have your whole life ahead of you, with great things to come.
Cruising down a road in the English countryside, driving at a high rate of speed in your sports car, the unthinkable happens. Your world explodes as your vehicle comes across an unexpected turn. You, your passenger and the vehicle get airborne. Your passenger walks away with minor injuries. You don’t walk away a whole person.
Or you could be a teenager who is a gifted athlete or Boy Scout with a sense of duty to your school and your country. By the age of 21, you are in another world. Young, handsome and a member of the armed forces, serving your country; what more could one person ask for? You have your whole life ahead of you, with great things to come.
Bouncing down a sand-strewn, rutted road in the Iraqi countryside, driving at a high rate of speed in your armored vehicle, the unthinkable happens. Your world explodes as your vehicle comes across an unexpected roadside bomb. You, your passenger and the vehicle get airborne. Your passengers walk away with minor injuries. You don’t walk away a whole person.
Rick Allen woke up to life without his left arm. Allen figured his career and life were over. However, he was very wrong. According to his bio on, Allen turned personal tragedy into spiritual transformation and continued his musical career. While he was already a hero to millions of young people, he soon added millions of new admirers. Since then Rick has been reaching out and giving support to others all over the globe by sharing his personal experiences and his love of drumming.
Over the past 10 years Rick has reached out to teenage cancer patients, children with special needs, at risk youth in crisis, families of domestic violence and veterans who have served in Vietnam, Desert Storm, Iraq and Afghanistan. He was awarded the Humanitarian Award by Maria Shriver’s Best Buddies of CA in 2002 and continues his work through the Veteran Resiliency Project created by his nonprofit the Raven Drum Foundation
NOTE: For ease of reading, this article has been split into two parts.
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