Climbing Mount Everest to help fight Blindness and Depression. I’m climbing Mt Everest and Id really appreciate your help and support. All 8850 M of it. "it always seems impossible until its done"
Nelson Mandela
Why, and why should you care -I'd like to help others who have struggles in life whether from a visual impairment or depression / mental illness. Two challenges close to my own heart. I am 50 next May when I aim to summit. I am visually impaired. I have also suffered bouts of depression for many years and it has destroyed many parts of my life because I was too proud to get help and would often overcompensate with a constant drive to prove myself to cover for those issues. Both exhausting and very damaging....…. But I believe I am one of the lucky ones. I got help and support, others are not so fortunate. I have reached a great place in life due to the support of some special people and friends. I could choose to keep this all private and live a great life. But i felt compelled topublicise mys tory in the hope of bringing awareness and inspiring others to never give up. Life can be and is great, step by step, (wiht support), its just like climbing a mountain. It gets better and you can reach new heights in life. Briefly
At age 22 I was told I will go blind due to a rare eye disease in the next 5 to 10 years. I was in a flying career in the RAF after returning from the first Gulf conflict (Kuwait). As you can imagine this was life changing news. I never got counselling and just got on with life… or so I thought…
Fast forward to recent times. In a 3-year period, (2013 to 2016), a series of major life challenges occurred. We all suffer life challenges, but rarely so many so quickly and at this point I had "trained" myself to cope by ignoring, not addressing issues, not seeking help and not accepting any issues existed. I don’t publicize this for personal gain or attention, but to show the effect of burying your head in the sand and living in fear of being labelled and judged. I lost my sister to breast cancer, (also visuallt impaired). I steadily destroyed and lost my 20-year marriage to a wonderful woman. I lost my financial security, 15 years’ work
I met was lucky to meet a wonderfully amazing and supportinve woman. On month later, I was diagnosed with a life changing major illness that requires daily medication to keep me healthy. I pushed on... (telling myself and the world I was fine, but I wasn’t)
I worked hard and rebuilt my business
I lost my father to a stroke (my best friend),
My rebuilt business was frauded to near bankruptcy
and finally...I lost this amazing suppotive woman simply by not addressing my "internal battles" affecting my damaging behaviour.. All this happening so quickly, I collapsed…. I ran out of "tough it out" - I had been over-compensating…I was exhausted…. I almost ended things… I was in a deep depression…
It took this for me to get help, because I had judged previously that to do do was weakness.
30 years of hiding feelings of inadequacy after being told I was going blind, low self esteem combined with an obsessive drive to prove myself equal and that I was good enough, finally caught up with me…. I never acquired the tools to deal with things after my first diagnosis. According to the World Health Organization(WHO), 350 million people worldwide suffer from depression. It is a leading cause of disability.
80% of blindness can be cured...sadly its just where you live that deermines if you are. Over the past 12 months I received proper support and counselling and I am humbled and grateful to have great friends who cared and didn’t judge. Without them, I wouldn’t be here today for sure …But, in this process I was staggered to find out how many people, from all walks of life, rich, poor, irrespective or race, religion, age or gender suffer the same challenges, (and much worse), but don’t always get support, more often than we realise taking the ultimate action of ending their lives. Lets face it, you don’t kill yourself when your happy, (well not on purpose),
Sadly, society still holds a stigma for depression, unfortunately people judge and therefore sufferers don’t seek help for fear they may be seen as weak or “drama”, especially the young, or like me you just tell everyone and yourself, “I’m fine’…… (until you break). Often when people have a physical disability the outside world fails to undersand, (no ones fault, education), that along with it can come emotional and phsycological challenges for that person. I am appealing to your compassion and understanding. Depression destroys lives families, relationships, work and health, its indiscriminate and more common than we realize. 70% of people will experience some sort of depression in their lives at some point. You will probably know someone with depression, you just don’t know they are struggling - they can appear very happy on the outside, its hidden well. My support got me to conquer my first mountain, my mind….I want to first bring awareness and then inspire and bring hope to others so when they are at the lowest lows in life, they can find some strength and believe it is possible to reach the highest highs in life . I couldn’t think of a more appropriate metaphor of life - We all climb mountains from time to time. and it takes a team and support. Depression is the same. Pleas help me to help people, it really can change and save lives…
I will be attempting the summit in May 2018, I am 50 that month. Your sponsorship will help me to raise funds and bring awareness for the following charities to help them use me and help me raise funds foe them. Thanks for your generosity. Your contributions will make a difference. You can follow my journey and read my full story as well as my training videos and experiences on my blog… www.mindandmountain.com
Charities:
Orbis: Helping cure blindness – 80% of the worlds visually impaired can be cured. Read more: http://sgp.orbis.org
Samaritans of Singapore. Read more https://sos.org.sg
And The Blind Veterans Association. Read more: https://www.blindveterans.org.uk/
Any typos, sorry... but ... well... :-)
Thank you sincerely for your support and contributions:
