Samuel Johnson Samuel Johnson

Samuel Johnson was born in Daylesford and educated at Wesley College, Melbourne.

Samuel Joseph Johnson OAM (born 1978) is an Australian actor, radio presenter, voiceover artist and philanthropist.

His portrayal as Molly Meldrum in Molly won the AACTA Award for Best Lead Actor in a Television Drama and won the Gold Logie for Most Popular Personality on Television of 2017.

In 2003 he rode from Sydney to Melbourne on a unicycle to raise money for children's cancer charity Canteen.

In 2013, he began riding 15,000 km on a unicycle in a year-long attempt to break the Guinness World Record and raise $1 million for the Garvan Institute of Medical Research to find a cure for breast cancer. His stated mission is to remind every Australian woman about the need to be 'breast aware', in an effort to promote early detection and improve survival rates, via his charitable foundation, Love Your Sister.

On 14 February 2014 Johnson returned to the starting point of his journey, Melbourne's Federation Square, having travelled 15,955 km by unicycle, broken the world record for the longest unicycle journey and raised $1,477,630.

In 2016, Johnson was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) for service to cancer research support organisations, and to the performing arts.

In 2017, Johnson was named the 2018 Victorian Australian of the Year, for his work raising funds for cancer research.

2021 Miracle Survival

Gold Logie winner Samuel Johnson talks for the first time of his "near-death" experience of being hit by a car in a horror accident and why he considers himself a "miracle child".

Gold Logie winner and celebrated cancer research fundraiser Samuel Johnson OAM has revealed he nearly died after being accidentally struck by a car.

Speaking for the first time about the horror accident that left him with a raft of injuries including a fractured skull and neck vertebra, Johnson said he had no memory of the impact.

He said he was briefly placed into an induced coma and experienced post traumatic amnesia during his hospital stay.

"It was near death, it was really close," Johnson said.

"I am a little bit of a miracle child and I don't use the M-word lightly."

Johnson, 43, was driving from country Victoria to a relative's house on the evening of 19 June 2021 when he pulled off the road in Melbourne's east to relieve himself.

"I was bursting to go for a pee and I still had half an hour's drive to go and I was not going to make it," he said.

"So, I pulled over into a service road. I crossed the road and I hopped behind a tree and that is all I remember."

Johnson - best known for his award-winning role in TV series, The Secret Life of Us, and for playing Molly Meldrum in the miniseries Molly - suffered head and internal injuries in the collision, which occurred as he tried to return to his vehicle.

"I had a 13mm fracture to my skull and I fractured my C1 vertebra in my neck, but luckily my face bore the brunt of the impact," he said.

"Apparently I inhaled ground glass which is what happens when you do a faceplant with a windscreen.

"My lungs are recovering well, but my air capacity might have been affected.

"I also had bleeding on the brain and blood clots in my brain and in my leg."

He injured the ligaments in his neck, partially dislocated his jaw and suffered significant deep bruising down the right side of his body.

He was briefly placed into an induced coma not long after he arrived at The Alfred Hospital.

The Love Your Sister charity campaigner revealed his survival was "touch and go for a while."

"Basically my golden hour went really well, and that is the first hour between the accident and the emergency room, but as soon as I was admitted to trauma I tanked (took a turn for the worst)," he said.

"My sister and my loved ones arrived (at the hospital) at roughly the same time as I did and they were taken into (a) special room for privacy in case they needed to be told that I did not make it.

"Somehow I got through."

He spent two weeks at The Alfred before moving to The Epworth Hospital for four and a half weeks where he started rehabilitation. He was then released as an outpatient, wearing a neck brace for a month for support.

Johnson said in the days after the accident he was confused, muddled and struggled to make sense of what had happened.

The confusion was part of a post traumatic amnesia, a stage of recovery after a traumatic brain injury.

"I could do nothing. I was telling my body to do things and my body was not listening at all," he said.

"I did not know my identity, I did not know who I was.

"I was pretty sure I was in a mental asylum or that my drink had been spiked. I was genuinely confused and I did not know what was what.

"I didn't know for a long time that I had been in an accident, so it has been a rather mysterious time."

He said he was in awe of the "wizards", the experts, specialists, doctors, nurses and staff who looked after him during his six and half weeks in hospital.

"There has been a lot of talk about frontline workers lately and I owe them my life and I don't know how to thank them properly," he said.

"I saw them as real heroes before I had the accident; you can imagine how heightened I feel about them now. I had the best care in the world and I have had great outcomes so I am feeling pretty gushy right now."

Johnson is now on the long, careful road to a full recovery.

"I'm past the three month mark which means I am going to be OK eventually, but I am still very much in recovery mode," he said.

"I am working on running and jumping. Hopping is next and at some stage in the future they might let me ride a bike and get my licence back.

"I am hoping to be back in business, fully fledged, next year sometime. I am now allowed to dream of that time."

The gifted performer said the accident had profoundly changed him.

"I am more grateful for the day," he said.

"I woke up and I was very clear that fear and anxiety needed to take a back seat.

"I needed to relax and the accident has helped me do that, so I see myself as a better humanoid now and one who is less carried away with the winds.

"I have gone from being a tightly wound anxiety bunny to being a chilled out guy."

He stressed the accident was exactly that, an accident.

"I hold no blame for the driver. I have not spoken to her yet. I hope she reads this and feels my love," he said.

While he is focused on his recovery, Johnson is also finally, officially, launching his new book My Life and Other Catastrophes* which raises funds for Love Your Sister.

The title of the book, which was completed before his accident, is not lost on him.

"I was meant to release a book called My Life and Other Catastrophes right at the time when I nearly died catastrophically, so don't think we have not had fun behind the scenes with this," he said.

"It is a journal about you. It is a diary if you like. You buy it to support cancer vanquishment but you fill it out yourself, with your rumours, your secrets, your loves, your regrets.

"It is a chance to rediscover yourself and your precious memories."

He said Love Your Sister - a charity he founded with his late sister Connie in 2012 to raise money for cancer research before she died from cancer, aged just 40, in September 2017 - had been a vital support during his ordeal.

"Both my Love Your Sister team and the Love Your Sister village were very strong while I was wobbly," he said, adding he was determined to get back to being a cancer fighter.

"It is what I am here to do," he said.

Fiona Byrne | Sunday Herald Sun
October 3, 2021

*My Life & Other Catastrophes
SKU 141022
$22.00 (Price incl. GST )

Buy Book

This book is all about you.

"My Life and Other Catastrophes" is the ultimate keepsake, a time capsule of your life, created by Dez Stallard & Samuel Johnson.

This guidebook will help forever record what you wanted from life, what you got right and also what you got horribly wrong [gasp]. Dive head-first into your brain's hippocampus and reflect on topics such as:

'The Best Things I Ever Did',
'What I'm Proudest Of',
'The Dumbest Things I Ever Did',
'That time I was naughty',
'My most perfect wonderful day',
'Skills I Can't Believe My Parents Never Taught Me',
and many more!

This is the place for all of your memories, whether they be fondly treasured, long-forgotten, or heavily suppressed.

We've all got a story. Ponder deeply and wander through memories, rummage through photos, dust off an old diary or read letters and cards from long lost friends. Keep it handy, you never know when you'll recall a little gem of something special which needs to be immortalised on paper.

This journal has even been picked up by well-being professionals to help their fellow humans, some as young as 13, to walk down tricky roads with the confidence to be themselves.

"My Life and Other Catastrophes" - Where your true self lives.

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❊ Web Links ❊

➼ Samuel Johnson 

➼ www.loveyoursister.org

➼ www.wikipedia.org






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