WHAT DO YOU DO IF YOU DON'T DIE?

Having been made aware he would never recover from his injuries, Steven Fletcher made a decision. If he was doomed to live, then live he would.

Thus starts a chapter in the wonderful book by Atikokan’s Linda McIntosh. What do You Do if You Don’t Die? The Steven Fletcher Story. Superbly written, the book shows us a man, now a member of parliament, who has changed the way hospitals, universities and governments among others, deal with the critically injured.

McIntosh, a well-know Manitoba politician, writes straight into the quick of our hearts. Watch for the book at Chapters after September 8. For these near Winnipeg, the launch at McNally Robinson at Grant Park is September 4 at 8 p.m. and at McNally Robinson at Polo Park on September 8 at 8 p.m. Further launches will be held in Vancouver, Calgary, Ottawa and Montreal.

Steven Fletcher is a quadriplegic, completely paralyzed from the waist down. But the book is more than the story of his physical injuries. It is a book about politics in the widest sense, not only the struggle for independence but the trail-blazing fight to become a member of parliament.

…one reporter asked Steven why people would vote for an inexperience quadriplegic… Steven dryly pointed out that he was paralyzed from the neck down, not from the neck up.