Anything is possible!

Yesterday my school had arranged two motivational guest speakers. When ever we hear of these things being arranged we all think 'right, time to go to sleep!’ as most of which can be very boring. We had our first about how we separate ourselves in society, and that we should 'cross tables' and come out of our comfort zones. At first I found it very interesting, however after about half an hour I started to drift.

The second guessed speaker of the day was just amazing. There are no words to describe how incredible and honorable it was to listen to his story. His name is Jamie Andrew, you may have heard of him and his incredible story. The speech went on for over an hour but I did not once feel bored. To give you an over view, he is a man who had a passion for mountaineering, who on one occasion got caught up in storm with a friend while climbing the French Alps. It was 4 days until rescue services came, however because of the weather conditions they were unable to be saved. His friend died that night, and Jamie told us yesterday that on that evening when he went to sleep, he didn’t think he would wake back up. Next day however he was still fighting, and thankfully the rescue services were able to save him this time round.

Due to frost bite and hypothermia, both his hands and feet had to be amputated. He had to learn everything from scratch, and became a reliant individual who could not do anything himself, from going to the toilet to doing up shirt buttons. He was forced to drop his active way of life.

However bit by bit he managed to get back into his old way of life, starting with small things then later onto bigger ones. He explained to us that it was great to go to bed at night knowing that he had always achieved something new. He told us that he never set his sights to high, and didn't set tasks that he felt were impossible. But with every task competed, he set a harder one which led him into doing things such as swimming, running, skiing, snow-boarding, paragliding, caving, orienteering and sailing, and eventually even mountaineering!

In April 2000 he climbed Britain’s biggest mountain raising £15,000 for charity. He later got back into rock and ice climbing, and even ran the London marathon of 2002 rising over £22,000 for charity. Along with all this he has climbed many other mountains, including one occasion where he was joined by 3 other disabled climbers, who together climbed Africa’s highest mountain raising 5,000 for charity.

The overview I have given above does not compare to the speech that was given yesterday by the man himself. He truly is amazing, and I think his story really does prove that when you put your mind to something as much as he has, you can achieve anything. His motto is "Remember, nothing is impossible!"

to find out more about his amazing story click here