Australia’s newest morning TV star would never have become a journalist if it weren’t for a life-changing accident that left him a quadriplegic.
ABC News Breakfast presenter Charles Brice grew up in Adelaide dreaming of becoming a pilot and, at 19, was on his way to gaining his flying license when he decided to live and work on a mate’s family farm 250km away. distance.
Not long after packing his bags and moving to Loxton in 2010, Brice went out for a Saturday morning motorcycle ride with his new friends.
But just a few miles from home, he took a turn and, after a series of bumps, went flying over the handlebars and landed head first on the ground.
Unable to move or take his phone out of his pocket, he spent 30 minutes lying on the road until the group returned.
Brice was flown to the Royal Adelaide Hospital, where doctors told his devastated family he had broken two vertebrae in his neck, completely severed his spinal cord and had a five per cent chance of walking again.
Charles Brice (right) moved to Melbourne to become a permanent member of the News Breakfast team.
Emergency surgery to fuse his C5/C6 vertebrae left Mr Brice sedated in intensive care for three weeks, where he remained on a ventilator for almost two months.
A future in journalism had never crossed his mind until he spent 14 months in rehab, where watching television helped keep him busy.
It sparked passion in television news, even though wheelchair reporters seemed non-existent.
In 2019, Brice began her journalism career at ABC and within two years, she made her on-camera debut.
He soon became familiar with News Breakfast viewers as the show’s South Australian correspondent.
Last week, Brice packed his bags and moved to Melbourne to become a permanent member of the News Breakfast team.
He will spend the next 12 months producing and presenting the national broadcaster’s breakfast show.
“Adelaide’s finest is now part of the News Breakfast studio team, and will be with us for the next year, both in front of and behind the camera as a presenter and producer,” News Breakfast announced in a Facebook post on Monday.
Brice is also a disability advocate and public speaker and co-founded the Wheel To Walk initiative, which has raised more than $300,000 for spinal cord injury research.
‘I knew I wanted to do television journalism but at the time it didn’t seem like a possibility. “I have never seen anyone in a wheelchair or with a disability on television,” Mr. Brice recently wrote for the Neurosurgical Research Foundation.
Charles Brice hopes to inspire other people with disabilities to pursue a career in media
A terrible motorcycle accident changed Charles’ life forever when he was 19 years old. He appears in the photo in the ICU.
“It’s great to have that disability exposure on television and also to a national audience.”
“Hopefully it can open some doors and give hope to other people going through similar circumstances.”
Brice also recently shared candid insight into the challenges of online dating for a quadriplegic and shared his dating advice.
“There were definitely times where I thought ‘Holy shit, would anyone be willing to date me in my situation?’ he told ABC’s Hack show on Triple j.
“It had only been a few years since my injury, so I probably felt a little – not ashamed – about my situation, but I thought that if I revealed my disability and showed my wheelchair in the application photos, I probably wouldn’t have the chance.” “. success rate that healthy people would have.
“So at first I didn’t show my wheelchair and some people took it very well.”
He also recalled an awkward exchange with a girl he met online after she agreed to meet up for drinks.
Charles (pictured with Lisa Millar and Michael Rowland) is already familiar to News Breakfast viewers in his previous role as the show’s South Australian correspondent.
“I said, ‘Can I throw you a curveball?'” he recalled.
“I was in a motorcycle accident and broke my neck, so I feel more than the average person.”
The girl replied, ‘Oh, I’m so sorry to hear that, but at least you can walk a little,’ she replied.
Brice continued, “And that was a little bit of an awkward moment where I had to tell him, ‘Look, I can’t walk at all.’
“She was a trooper, she was great.”
Brice shared the clip on his social media and was inundated with messages from female viewers after revealing he was single.
‘Single? Charles, call me,” one woman commented.
Charles Brice (right) has been an ABC reporter since 2019. He is pictured interviewing legendary cycling commentator Phil Liggett.