KEY POINTS:
When Dean Brennan came out of the Otara Spinal Unit he could not move anything below his chin.
Nine years later, he has married, found God, become a website developer - and has just won Housing New Zealand's national garden competition.
His almost miraculous story is a tribute to his determination, and to his carers, his family and his wife Eleanor, who married him a year after he employed her as his accident compensation-funded live-in carer.
Thanks to a physiotherapist, who worked with him after he left the spinal unit, Mr Brennan can now move one arm quite freely and the other arm slightly, so he can get around his garden on his motorised wheelchair.
But he still can't move his fingers or bend his body, so his three paid carers and Mrs Brennan have done all the physical work on the garden, although it was his concept.
"What I do is just verbal," he said. "I am blessed with the carers I have got. I just wish it was the same for others."
British-born Mr Brennan, now 45, trained as a landscaper with the Hackney council in London.
He later worked as a roadie for rock acts including Pink Floyd and Stevie Wonder, before coming to New Zealand with his Kiwi partner in 1990. They later married, but split after having a daughter, who is now 11.
Mr Brennan worked for Waitakere Maintenance and was in charge of the Keep Waitakere Beautiful campaign.
"I was working seven days a week because it was all weekend work for Keep Waitakere Beautiful, working with the public planting street trees," he said.
He was also a volunteer at the Waitemata Fire Station in Hobsonville Rd, where he planted 900 flowers to spell out the message: "Smoke Alarms Save Lives".
In mid-1997 he tripped over at home during "an altercation" and broke three vertebrae. He woke up in the spinal unit.
"They said I was going to be a head on a pillow in critical care," he said. "It was a bit of a shock for me when I finally came to. I left the spinal unit driving my chair with my chin."
Having a garden has helped Mr Brennan's recovery.
When he moved into his Housing NZ home in Henderson Valley eight years ago, the back lawn was a big "puddle of water" surrounding an umbrella washing line.
Today the small lawn is drained and ringed by a magnificent rock-lined garden of cacti, flowers and trees; a water feature constantly circulates water in one corner.
Mr Brennan was not happy with the colour of the first water feature he bought, and tracked down the maker in Ranui to get one made that matched the colour of the surrounding rocks, which he acquired from a quarry at Bethells Beach.
A mate, Brett Bond, helped him to win $4500 from Waitakere Maintenance in "part-redundancy, part-appreciation", which helped to pay for it all.
Mr Brennan has also employed his own ACC-funded carers - a move he recommends to other newly disabled people at the spinal unit.
He has created websites for the spinal unit's buddy network, The Association for Spinal Concerns, and for his Ranui Baptist Church and two commercial organisations.
Mr Brennan said his baptism in the church three years ago made all this possible.
"Things for me have only really come to fruition since I became a Christian, especially when it comes to being of use to anybody."
