Brink Evelyne - It takes guts: a story of love, hope and a missing bowel

A story of love, hope and a missing bowel

IT TAKES GUTS

First published in 2014 by

Panoma Press

48 St Vincent Drive, St Albans, Herts, AL1 5SJ, UK

www.panomapress.com

Book layout by Charlotte Mouncey

Printed on acid-free paper from managed forests.

ISBN 978-1-909623-72-9
eISBN 978-1-784520-56-4

The right of Evelyne Brink to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988.

A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any material form (including photocopying or storing in any medium by electronic means and whether or not transiently or incidentally to some other use of this publication) without the written permission of the copyright holder except in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Design and Patents Act 1988. Applications for the Copyright holders written permission to reproduce any part of this publication should be addressed to the publishers.

This book is available online and in bookstores.

Copyright 2014 Evelyne Brink

A story of love, hope and a missing bowel

Evelyne Brink

An amazing story of how crisis can turn strangers into family and the amazing reserves of grace, love, and hope we can all find inside ourselves when we really need them.

Michael Neill, author of Supercoach, The Inside Out Revolution and Founder of Supercoach Academy

This story will make you weep and laugh. It will make you feel every feeling there is and think deeply about what is real, sacred and true about life.

Robert Holden, author Holy Shift! and Founder of The Happiness Project

If you want to quickly reduce the size of almost any huge problem you are dealing with, simply read It Takes Guts by Evelyne Brink.

Steve Hardison, The Ultimate coach

Evelyne and Tuffels story will inspire you it will make you smile and it will also make you weep. Hang on for the ride because there is much this brave boy and his mother have to teach us all about the extraordinary nature of life.

Rich Litvin, author of The Prosperous Coach and founder of the Confident Womans Salon.

This is a truly powerful story that can and will change the world. The amount of humour, absolute love, raw humanness and shifts in perspective in this short book have altered my view of what I think is possible. Thank you Tuffel for your light and wisdom; I am forever brightened by your story.

Amy Deva, Intuitive coach and yoga teacher

Wow Evelynes story is so in heartfelt and touching to my core. I too had a baby that was hospitalized in intensive care and was told he would not survive. I felt like Evelyne was telling my story and what I personally went through from the strength she had to have to stand up for her baby to the constant looking for every bright side. Her story brought tears of joy and tears of empathy in knowing the power it takes to believe in your baby and in miracles within the universe. I am in awe of the complete connection Evelyne, Thomas and Tuffel have to change their circumstances and in doing so, the world.

Darlene Navarre, Playologist, Founder of GoPlazy

It Takes Guts is raw, real and deeply moving. It gets you in sync with the power of human emotion and how capable we are of creating miracles when we believe in nothing less. I am in awe of this book.

Marilyn Rodriguez,
Founder, Embrace Your Light Coaching

Fact is stranger than fiction and you would be forgiven for believing that a lot of this story is made up but it isnt! Tuffel really is a special, almost unique, baby, and he and his family have experienced challenges that fortunately very few of us ever face. I often wonder how I would cope with any particular adversity, and part of the beauty of this book is that Evelyne is showing one way how. Another part is the actual story!

Another quality of the book is the insight it gives you into who Evelyne is. What you read here is what you get! I can vouch for many of the details for the first five months since I witnessed them. That does not include Evelynes secret fantasies revolving around uniforms!

It was impossible not to feel very involved in this story. It provoked many reactions as I read on. First of all, amazement at all Evelyne went through physically even though I witnessed a small portion of it. Second: amazement at what she went through emotionally I dont recall seeing any of that! Third: amusement because of the light-hearted way she has expressed what the family went through. Fourth: interest in the style and organisation of her writing; I am sure I would have been much more turgid if I had tried to do it. Fifth: gratitude. She has helped me a little bit to understand the experience of patients and families. I say a little bit because I would not be so presumptuous to claim I could feel her experiences. Finally, I didnt want the book to finish where it did I wanted it to go on to its ultimate happy ending....

As a Neonatal Unit consultant, I (like most of my colleagues) have never experienced neonatal intensive care first hand. To have the opportunity to find out how the babies and their families are experiencing our care is beyond price. Evelyne succeeds in drawing this picture and involving us in how it affected Tuffel, Thomas and herself. These effects will be life long. And of course, the story is not yet finished

Anthony Kaiser BSc MD FRCP FRCPCH

Consultant neonatologist

St Thomas Hospital, London

Evelyne Brink is an extraordinary woman. An incredible performer once Europes most successful Madonna impersonator shes now a highly respected personal and executive coach.

She was pregnant and counting down the days to becoming a mother for the first time, when on the very day that was supposed to be the happiest of her life, her whole world seemed to screech to a blood-curdling halt.

Within minutes of giving birth to a beautiful blue-eyed baby boy, she was told the worst news a mother could ever hear: Your baby is going to die.

But Evelyne is a coach. She has a career based on helping people undertake the impossible on a regular basis, and teaching them to break through impossible barriers.

And she wasnt ready to hear this heartbreaking news.

So she gathered up her courage and she stepped up in an incredible way.

I was privileged to spend time in hospital with her son Tuffel when he was four months old. He was strapped to several beeping machines; cords and cables ran into and out of his body. But he was alive. And he was thriving.

Evelyne had refused to accept the doctors prognosis when he was born and here we were, watching her lovely baby rolling from his back to his tummy.

Tuffel is now two years old and the journey hasnt always been an easy one. There have been midnight blue-light ambulance trips to the hospital and scares and challenges.

But Evelyne has shown up with heart and soul throughout. And until now shes shared this only with her private clients and the readers of her blog.

There is hope that stem cell research will offer a brighter future. But Evelyne still takes the journey one day at a time. The only way we can ever really live life.

Evelyne and Tuffels story will inspire you it will make you smile and it will also make you weep. Hang on for the ride because there is much this brave boy and his mother have to teach us all about the extraordinary nature of life.