Battler Bazza West is a painter extraordinaire – finding solace in art after a car crash shattered his life.
The doting dad has been a quadriplegic for 24 years and turned to painting, using just his mouth, to beat depression.
He now teaches art and gives tutorials online – but his star pupil is son Harrison, four, who spends hours by his side.
And as the world grapples with the coronavirus, Bazza, 43, has produced a remarkable piece of work summing up the determination he has in spades.
We Will Never Surrender shows a warrior attacking the virus.
Bazza, of Uckfield, East Sussex, posted on social media: “We will beat it – I will paint it – we will never surrender.”
And he adds: “The spear is going into the coronavirus. It’s a scary thing that you can’t see and I wanted to bring it to life.”
Despite his traumas, Bazza looks at Harrison and wife Lorraine, 39, and always counts his blessings.
He says: “I’ve had a remarkable life. If you’d told me, aged 19, in hospital and told I’d never walk again, that nearly 25 years on I’d have a wife, a son and a fantastic vocation, I’d never have believed you.”
Bazza’s first go at painting was in 2009, 13 years after the accident that changed his life.
He bought a teach yourself kit and found he had a talent.
In early 2013, he contacted the Mouth and Foot Painting Artists organisation and became a student of the society, which pays a monthly bursary in exchange for at least five pieces of work a year.
Harrison loves to follow his dad’s lead.
Though, as hairdresser Lorraine says: “We had to explain to his nursery that while it might be frowned upon for other children to use their mouths, for Harrison and his daddy, that’s the way it’s done!”
Bazza and Lorraine – who also has two teenage daughters – were long-time friends who became close after he plucked up the courage to contact her on Facebook in 2015.
They pooled £18,000 of savings to pay for two rounds of IVF and Harrison was born on Valentine’s Day in 2016 – six weeks after the couple wed.
Bazza says: “I’ll never forget holding Harrison the first time.
“I was blown away I was actually a dad. Now my family means everything to me.”
He credits art with helping him find love and happiness, adding: “Painting pulled me out of some dark places.
"It’s amazing how it can change your perspective – especially when you’re stuck in the house, like a lot of us are right now.
"It’s hugely therapeutic. And to anyone who thinks painting isn’t for them, I say: If you believe, you can achieve – just look at me.”
This doggedness carried Bazza through the worst of times. He was 19 when he was paralysed from the neck down and kept in an induced coma for four months.
He recalls: “I woke up, unable to move and convinced I was late for work. Little did I know I was four months late.
“At first, I could move just my eyes. I remember seeing a man who couldn’t use his arms and thinking, ‘Poor bloke’.
“No one had the heart to tell me that would be my reality, but I soon figured it out for myself.”
After being discharged, the weeks turned into months and years, leaving Bazza depressed. But his life picked up thanks to the Back-Up Trust, which helps the spinally injured regain confidence and independence.
He did ski karting, sky diving and made the summit of Mount Snowdon, Ben Nevis and Scafell Pike in his wheelchair. In 2012 he carried the Olympic torch through Rye, Sussex.
Now Bazza has a family, painting is his passion and home really is where the art is.
- Find out more at mfpa.uk
