{"id":426876,"date":"2026-05-14T06:53:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-14T06:53:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/426876\/"},"modified":"2026-05-14T06:53:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-14T06:53:10","slug":"how-jason-barrell-overcame-broken-neck-brain-damage-and-dyslexia-to-thrive-on-the-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/426876\/","title":{"rendered":"How Jason Barrell overcame broken neck, brain damage and dyslexia to thrive \u2013 On The Up"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cWe\u2019re all pretty resilient, all the things that have happened in my life set me up for the next part,\u201d Barrell said.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople say I\u2019m super resilient but I\u2019m not much different from anyone else. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe all have strength in us when we\u2019re faced with it. <\/p>\n

\u201cI pushed really hard to recover \u2013 I don\u2019t believe I\u2019d be where I am if I hadn\u2019t pushed as hard as I did to get well.\u201d <\/p>\n

Barrell\u2019s prowess on the rugby field led to his selection for Northland provincial teams, then as a professional representing the Blues, Chiefs and Auckland NPC. <\/p>\n

He was 29 when he broke his neck during Auckland\u2019s warm-up match against Northland in his hometown of Whang\u0101rei<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Refusing to be sidelined by the career-ending injury, he confronted his dyslexia and retrained for the New Zealand Police<\/a>. <\/p>\n

He was working as a constable when he began having a series of strokes. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt turns out I\u2019d had minor ones in college, weird stuff with my vision. <\/p>\n

\u201c[As an adult] my first one was while policing; I was eating a hamburger and I couldn\u2019t eat properly on one side. <\/p>\n

\u201cThen it would come right and my balance would go. I had massive fatigue and couldn\u2019t work out what it was.\u201d <\/p>\n

An MRI scan found a life-threatening tumour, and though he survived the nine-hour surgery, the procedure caused damage, leaving him semi-paralysed.<\/p>\n

Then 32, he had to relearn how to balance, walk and feed himself. <\/p>\n

He pushed hard \u2013 sometimes too hard he admits \u2013 and after a couple of years he was driving again. <\/p>\n

Part of his recovery involved writing a book, Try, Try Again, published in 2009, and becoming a motivational speaker.<\/p>\n

After five years he reinvented himself again, this time as an insurance and financial adviser for a major insurance company. <\/p>\n

After several years he realised sitting at a desk all day \u201cwasn\u2019t my thing\u201d, so established a fishing charter business which he loved. <\/p>\n

\u201cThat was when Covid came along, and the writing was on the wall. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt wasn\u2019t a great time for running a business like that.\u201d <\/p>\n

\"JasonJason Barrell (centre) during his rugby career with brother Con and young son Troy.<\/p>\n

Barrell retrained in real estate<\/a> \u2013 now in his sixth year \u2013 because \u201cI\u2019ve always loved property\u201d. <\/p>\n

He recently joined the Ray White Whang\u0101rei sales team, along with his son Troy, who is the agency\u2019s rural salesperson. <\/p>\n

Ray White Whang\u0101rei director Vanessa McKenzie said Barrell had faced extraordinary challenges with a \u201cquiet achiever attitude\u201d that was truly inspiring. <\/p>\n

\u201cJason is a man of enormous character and warmth. <\/p>\n

\u201cIn real estate, resilience is everything, and Jason has it in spades.\u201d <\/p>\n

Barrell said his experiences taught him that getting on with life is a choice. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s always a way forward,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can use setbacks to achieve more or give up, it\u2019s up to you, but I know which one is more exciting. <\/p>\n

\u201cI could have gone the wrong way a few times. <\/p>\n

\u201cBut people respect you if you\u2019re genuinely trying to get better.\u201d <\/p>\n

Jenny Ling is a senior journalist at the Northern Advocate. She has a special interest in covering human interest stories, along with finance, roading, and social issues. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cWe\u2019re all pretty resilient, all the things that have happened in my life set me up for the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":426877,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[32144,95,218958,1596,1647,13912,22510,17153,5810,71,6098,221,29116,82837,102150,6978,111,139,31469,69,10932,90,26758,5415,675,30619,6327,213,182423,43211,6290,1361,223,61885,61,810],"class_list":["post-426876","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-adapted","tag-and","tag-barrell","tag-brain","tag-breaking","tag-broken","tag-damage","tag-damaged","tag-dyslexia","tag-from","tag-hard","tag-how","tag-jason","tag-knocks","tag-lifes","tag-neck","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-northlander","tag-nz","tag-officer","tag-on","tag-overcame","tag-playing","tag-police","tag-repeatedly","tag-rugby","tag-sports","tag-strokes","tag-suffering","tag-surgery","tag-that","tag-the","tag-thrive","tag-to","tag-up"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/426876","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=426876"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/426876\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/426877"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=426876"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=426876"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=426876"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}