Tom Oliver: Riding Life Until the Wheels Fall Off

Meet Tom Oliver. Beaches local, model, actor, writer, Spotify artist, and electric wheelchair user living with limb-girdle muscular dystrophy. His story isn't one of limitation. It's one of extraordinary courage, raw honesty, and a life lived full throttle.

Growing up on the Beaches, Tom's life has been shaped by a series of pivotal moments. An electric wheelchair user since childhood, Tom's parents worried about what this might mean for his social life. When he was twelve, Tom's mum even called his school to find out if he was doing well with friends, only to hear from the teacher that, "He's actually the leader of the cool group."

At age fourteen, he overheard a call that would make most teens crumple. His mum was asked if his condition was terminal. Her response? Yes. Anyone else would have spiralled, but Tom simply went outside, looked at the sky, and smiled. In a moment of extraordinary calm, he said to himself, "Let's ride this life 'til the wheels fall off."

At sixteen, surrounded by close friends, he told his mum he felt like he owed his life to them. She replied, "They help you now, but in ten years, you'll help them more than ever." Years later, he realised she was right.

In his early twenties, Tom's calm dissolved, bringing extreme anxiety and depression. Unable to cope, he turned to drugs. It only went downhill from there, accelerating Tom into a suicide attempt at age twenty-three. Paramedics later told him he was just fifteen minutes from dying. He spent four days on life support. After several hospitalisations, a doctor knelt beside him and said, "You don't have nine lives. You have ten." That moment became his turning point toward sobriety.

After six years working at Volkswagen, he transitioned into the creative industry, landing work with the Australian ATO and featuring in the Black Dog Institute's One Step Forward campaign, along with multiple other shoots.

Today, Tom has turned his life around, using his darkest moments as creative fuel. Now a Spotify rapper and published poet of Still Fire, Tom turns raw emotion into messages of relatability and hope that can bring others out of their own rough patches. With the wheels still spinning, Tom is turning life into a ride to remember.

Still Fire by Tom Oliver

Having lived a rough life with a history of drug use, a near-death close call and a terminal illness, Tom Oliver has chosen to channel his experiences into storytelling.

His debut illustrated poetry collection, Still Fire, explores identity, mental health, collapse, and recovery. Created in collaboration with ten international artists, it features 41 cinematic black-and-white pen and ink illustrations and 41 raw, confessional poems. Tom's mission is simple: to turn his lived experiences into something that helps others survive theirs.

Tom Oliver | tomoliverpoetry.com.au | @tomoliverr