New award honours a remarkable Australian

SpinalCure and SCIA have come together to launch the David Prast Achievement Award.

They say adversity builds strength and character, and that was certainly the case for the remarkable David Prast.

David, then a successful IT professional, was just 29 years old with a bright future ahead of him, when he had a life-changing accident at Perth’s Cottesloe Beach in 1995. After the accident, David became a C5-6 complete quadriplegic. It was the kind of devastating news that would destroy most people – but for David, it was the start of a whole new journey.

David left hospital vowing to make a difference for other Australians affected by spinal cord injury. He pioneered a global campaign to cure paralysis, and was appointed to the boards of SpinalCure and Spinal Cord Injury Australia (SCIA), putting his visionary, entrepreneurial spirit to work in the fight to find a cure.

He lobbied the Western Australian government to set aside a portion of the traffic fines they collected to fund neurological trauma research. As a result, millions of dollars have been channelled into this vital research, and other governments around the country have adopted the policy.

David was also an advocate for exercise-based therapies, travelling to the USA to learn more about how these treatments could improve people’s lives. Upon returning to Australia, David helped set up Walk On, a tailored, intensive activity-based rehabilitation program in which people with spinal cord injuries work one-on-one with qualified Exercise Physiologists and Physiotherapists to maximise their functional ability and lead a more independent life. The name was later changed to NeuroMoves.