Meet Allan Sparkes

I am very honoured to introduce Guest Editor Allan Sparkes CV,VA – a real Australian Hero – an Inspirational Speaker and Author  of – The Cost of Bravery

Allan is also an Ambassador for www.beyondblue.org. Allan Sparkes offers great insight, advice and encouragement on adversity and his guest contribution is far better than anything I could ever pen for you on this subject.

Allan Sparkes was the first Australian police officer to be awarded Australia’s highest decoration for bravery, the Cross of Valour.  He had no idea his rescue of a young boy from a flooded storm water system would culminate in the ignominious end of his police career.  His life hung in the balance. Allan is a  a brutally frank and honest author and he does not hold back in his account of what happened to him. His guest contribution is a valuable insight into the debilitating mental illnesses of post traumatic stress disorder and chronic depression, caused by 20 years of exposure to the horrors and  trauma of police work and his subsequent experiences with job loss and depression.  It is also a love story; a story of an incredible relationship with his wife and children that was tested in ways that few could ever contemplate.