I was an advisory teacher when I suffered a spinal injury in 2007 that landed me in a Brisbane hospital emergency department.Thanks to a neurosurgeon, I regained the use of my left leg and the crushing pain eased. 
I woke up one morning in 1988 with a sore back.As the pain continued to increase, I consulted my general practitioner who referred me to an orthopedic surgeon. After some tests, I was told that there were no problems and that the pain should go away. It didn't.
It happened on 28 August 2008 at 8.28am. Everything after that is a bit of a blur, but the moment the accident happened will be stuck in my memory forever.
In 1962 at the age of 21, Renée was involved in a serious car accident that kept her in an English hospital - in a 40-bed geriatric ward - for nearly two years.
It was during a long jump attempt at my school's athletics try-outs when I was nine that I first hurt myself.As usual, I ran and jumped but as I hit the sand I felt pain in what I thought was my ankle.
Breast cancer is a diagnosis heard all too often these days at 13,000 diagnoses a year in Australia.
My first taste of pain and injury was when I was only three years old.We had a car accident and I had my lower lumbar joints damaged as well as whiplash injuries to my neck. No one knew this at the time, though, and by the time I was nine I was having X-rays on my back to find out why I was in so much pain.
My injury happened over two days – August 30-31, 2001 – when I was asked to reorganise the office's new filing system.
My problems started in the early 1980s with the introduction of computers in most public service departments.In 1986,
Harry Perkins, son of Olympic champion swimmer and Painaustralia Director Kieren Perkins OAM, was diagnosed with chronic migraine at the tender age of eleven.
I injured my neck in 1993 while attending a Scout Jamboree in Canada as a carer for a child with cerebral palsy.My pain symptoms didn't really show up until 1997 when I started getting lots of neck and arm pain. 
6 when I was 17. Unrelated to any incident, I began to experience extreme back pain. I later discovered it was a degenerative disease with no cure, but at the time I thought it could just be 'fixed'.
I first incurred a serious back injury at work in 1985. It was not able to be evidence-based for five years (at the time of surgery).
"Fortunately", the pain from my neck injury was so severe that it was taken seriously from the start.
I was nine years old when I damaged the ligaments in my left leg in a hurdling accident.After a year of treatment my leg hadn't healed – in fact the pain had worsened and I was diagnosed with chronic regional pain syndrome. 
Before my accident, about six years ago, I worked at a prestige car dealership in Brisbane. This work was physically demanding as well as being quite social. We all had to get on well as it could be quite a pressured environment and humour often kept us going.
September 23, 2006 was a beautiful, still, sunny autumn day.I was in the UK to visit my elderly mother and other family members and had taken the train to London to visit a friend.
As a chronic migraine sufferer I've lived with pain since I was a small child. With the help of sub-occipital electrodes and an implanted pulse generator (IPG implant) I can now manage my daily pain and rely less on heavy medications.
I'd survived the traumas of a major motor car accident, the ignominity of a prostatectomy, and the despair and exasperation of three separate cancers and their harsh therapies, but nothing had prepared me for the greatest challenge of my life, dealing with chronic pain
That Friday in June 1990 began like any other Friday – two adults, three teenagers, family pets, all heading out. I was totally unaware that this was the day "Super Mum" would die and life as I knew it would be over.
I had two major cycling accidents in the 1980s which caused a spinal fracture and severe whiplash.I quickly got over the accidents and was fine until the early 1990s when I started to have migraines. This gradually progressed to daily migraines by 1996.
Kelli: Autoimmune Disease
When I was 25, I was living life to the full. Then, literally overnight, I became ill. It was 15 April 1998, a date I will never forget, when I woke up in severe pain. I had to crawl on my elbows and knees to go to the bathroom. I had pain in all my joints – it even hurt to breathe.
After a string of appointments with doctors investigating what they thought was arthritis, a chest x-ray showed benign tumors in my lungs the size of my fist. It was then they diagnosed an autoimmune disease, Sarcoidosis.
One-in-100,000 people get Sarcoidosis, and half of them have no symptoms. However mine was a very aggressive form that affected many parts of my body, including my brain and central nervous system, but the biggest issue for me was the pain.
By September 1998 I could no longer work so I took 10 months sick leave. During this time, I had three separate periods of hospitalisation, a total of three months in hospital.
The symptoms progressed to uncontrollable muscle spasms, called myoclonic jerks, with my arms spontaneously shaking or swinging wildly, and I had limited muscle strength. By February 1999 I went into a wheelchair, and stayed in it for three months.
Later my entire nervous system became 'inflamed' leading to extreme nerve pain. I had a sensation of 'pins and needles' and felt as if my nerves were burning over my entire body.
As I could no longer manage the stairs to the apartment I shared with my partner, I moved into my mum's house, and lay in bed all day. Then I became depressed.
After another admission to hospital for more pain relief, the doctors told me the disease seemed to be under control and the only thing they could do was assist with pain relief. This is when they suggested the ADAPT program.
I wasn't allowed to join the program until I was out of my wheelchair and more independent, so I started with regular counselling sessions, as well as physiotherapy, while still at home.
A few months later, I joined the ADAPT in-house program at the Royal North Shore Hospital, where I was assisted by physiotherapists, psychologists, doctors, nurses and rehabilitation staff. This was the first time I had been out of bed, in a routine, for many months!
ADAPT taught me that pain does not necessarily equal damage, and that my disease was forever, so I had to cope. This was a big change from looking for an answer.
ADAPT wasn't a miracle cure. It was hard work. I spent one month at home, practicing the strategies 24 hours a day. Within two months I was able to reduce my medication. Then, 12 months after becoming ill, I returned to work, doing two hours a day, two days per week!
In the end I managed to change the way I thought about pain, and this changed the way my body felt it. My confidence came back. Today I still feel pain every day but I don't focus on it – and I never take any pain medication.
I am now married to my partner, I have two beautiful young children, and I am a senior director within financial services, leading a large team in eight locations around the world. I feel very fortunate, and am very proud of myself for deciding not to give up!