Rob Buren was living his dream life, until the Sunday morning when his spine snapped. The Microsoft marketing manager; his wife, Sabrina; and their two sweet daughters: Zara and Chloe lived in a two-storey house on the west side of Oakville, Ont. Their backyard edged onto a green space with a trail system. Rob loved to cycle on weekends, and it was onto those trails that he took off with friends on mountain bikes, while Sabrina and the girls (aged two and four at the time) were at home, looking forward to making pancakes together on his return. After an hour, Rob and his friend Eric broke away and made for an obstacle course they knew, full of fallen trees and ramps made of out of old lumber.

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That day Rob decided to try a bigger jump than he?d ever attempted before, a ramp with a four-foot drop. ?Worst case, I might need your help getting out of the forest,? he called out to Eric, thinking he might damage his bike if he didn?t quite achieve the perfect landing.
What happened next re-set the course of his life and forced him to redefine his whole concept of fatherhood.
Despite being a self-confessed speed fiend, Rob approached the ramp cautiously and went over it too slowly. W...