‘I started to cry and yell as I felt anxious and scared. I was only two years old when Craig came crashing out of his bedroom, holding a pillow. As Craig held the pillow over my face, I remember kicking and pulling at his arms, but he was too strong. I couldn’t breathe. I could feel my panic increase, my heart beating faster. I thought I was going to die…’

From the age of two, Shane didn’t have the normal upbringing. Being handed around family members when his mother rejected him, he felt like an unwanted child. Becoming a ‘Ward of the State’ at the age of eight, Shane was placed in permanent care with his foster family, until Shane decided to leave when he was fifteen years old.

Shane always had the feeling of not belonging & being disconnected from himself and the outside world. After struggling to come to terms with his sexuality during his teenage years, Shane had suicidal thoughts and attempted to take his own life.

Shane share’s his story of his childhood trauma, heartache, grief & loss, struggles with depression, anxiety, self-harm, suicidal thoughts and behaviours, coming out as gay, drug addiction, sexual experiences with different men and working as an escort whilst living in Sydney, as he desperately tries to find a connection in all the wrong places.

Resilience a story of survival is a compelling memoir. Shane’s message of hope, recovery, and resilience. With the odds stacked against kids that come from being ‘State Wards’ – drugs, becoming a teenage parent, living a life of crime, prison and even death; Shane got out and worked towards obtaining a higher education that leads to a career as a Mental Health Nurse.

Shane is his own success story.