or you
RISE
A brief bio.
A brief bio:
Chad was an electro/mechanical engineer specialising in the pumping and water treatment industry for 18 years, who turned to the ocean over a decade ago and fell in love with the deep blue sea and all that it offers. In particular, the mesmerising world of scuba diving. British born, he moved from England to Australia at the age of 11 with his family and spent his youth growing up as an illegal immigrant riding dirt bikes in the lush green valleys of N.S.W exploring bush and mountains where few people had trod before. After completing those wonderful teenage years in the amazing country of Australia he returned to the UK to begin adulthood and has been a keen globe trotter ever since. For over a decade he has been working for NGO's managing marine conservation projects as well as working for various luxury resorts and dive centers around the world. During these years he has been teaching paying guests/volunteers and indigenous locals how to dive while also assisting marine biologists teaching all matters relating to ocean conservation. As well as teaching standard first aid/CPR courses, Chad has also worked alongside qualified Doctors teaching remote expedition medicine and primary/secondary first aid skills to remote and underprivileged communities. With the help of volunteer donations and personal fund raising Chad has organised and raised thousands of pounds in funds for Fijian community projects such as: refurbishing a kindergarten school, building sanitation facilities, community hall roofing and regional sporting event sponsorship funds to name a few. Chad was also part of a small team that were the first response effort to provide aid to the devastated communities of Fiji directly after Cat 5 Cyclone Winston. (Just surviving it himself as featured by the BBC) Chad has excellent public speaking skills and is quite at home speaking to large congregations of people (although he is an introvert and his accent is a bit peculiar these days!) his particular interest and enjoyment are Sharks and Shark/megafauna conservation. He is happiest under water surrounded by sharks, however Chad can't completely shake the engineer out if him and is often found in the workshop trying to fix something.
We are all just different shades of human.
Some of my challenges.
Immediately after returning to the UK from Australia I was knocked off my bicycle by a drunk driver and left for dead on the side of the road putting an end to my up coming football career. I lost most of the right hand side of my face, broke my cheek bone and embedded lot's of gravel in my skull. The nurses were picking road out of my face for many hours. (you know it's bad when the Doctors cringe at you) My brain swelled and bruised from the impact and I had 3 years of post traumatic stress amnesia, huge waves of depression and anxiety followed for a decade as a result of a severe head trauma. The road to mental recovery was a long one.
This just added to the condition I was born with. I was born with a rare medical condition called "Poland syndrome" which affects the right hand side of the body. I was born with no right side pectoral muscle, no right side lateral muscle. I have one hand slightly bigger than the other one and my index finger is short and bent. The fingers on my right hand were also webbed. This had caused me a life time of depression and anxiety. Combine this with the effects of the accident being a young man trying to find man hood was tough. As a young man my friends all desired fast cars and girlfriends, but as a young man I all that I desired was symmetry. I would like to point out that compared to other people who suffer from Poland syndrome that I am lucky in that I only have a mild case of it compared to many. Many people are born with no limbs, no rib cages, fused bones, body function problems and severe mental health issues.
I decided that if I got the right hand side of my body covered in tattoos it would hide the deformities. However, I soon realized how much tattoos hurt and there was no way I was getting my right side completely covered! oh the pain! seriously people how do woman get their breasts tattooed? how you stand the pain!? However since I then just like tattoos and have a few. But if I am brutally honest with myself the main motivation for originally getting them was embarrassment/disguise of my own body. I now believe that the body is just a vessel, In need of decorating and I feel sorry for all those plain normal bodies that all look the same. I do not judge a book by it's cover.
Around the age of 26 I was granted free surgery on the wonderful British institution that is the N.H.S. I gratefully received a chest implant, the webbing on my right hand was removed. I had the choice of shattering and straightening my right hand finger and inserting some metal to extend it to normal proportions, however the surgeons advised me that I would loose all functions of my fingers and thumb on that hand. So I decided to keep it an be able to use it, a small reminder. We all have our scars, my hand is mine (and not forgetting the few scars on my face) This reconstructive surgery changed my life. Poland syndrome has defined my entire life, it does not define me anymore.
It is OK to be different. It's ok to be an introvert.
This just added to the condition I was born with. I was born with a rare medical condition called "Poland syndrome" which affects the right hand side of the body. I was born with no right side pectoral muscle, no right side lateral muscle. I have one hand slightly bigger than the other one and my index finger is short and bent. The fingers on my right hand were also webbed. This had caused me a life time of depression and anxiety. Combine this with the effects of the accident being a young man trying to find man hood was tough. As a young man my friends all desired fast cars and girlfriends, but as a young man I all that I desired was symmetry. I would like to point out that compared to other people who suffer from Poland syndrome that I am lucky in that I only have a mild case of it compared to many. Many people are born with no limbs, no rib cages, fused bones, body function problems and severe mental health issues.
I decided that if I got the right hand side of my body covered in tattoos it would hide the deformities. However, I soon realized how much tattoos hurt and there was no way I was getting my right side completely covered! oh the pain! seriously people how do woman get their breasts tattooed? how you stand the pain!? However since I then just like tattoos and have a few. But if I am brutally honest with myself the main motivation for originally getting them was embarrassment/disguise of my own body. I now believe that the body is just a vessel, In need of decorating and I feel sorry for all those plain normal bodies that all look the same. I do not judge a book by it's cover.
Around the age of 26 I was granted free surgery on the wonderful British institution that is the N.H.S. I gratefully received a chest implant, the webbing on my right hand was removed. I had the choice of shattering and straightening my right hand finger and inserting some metal to extend it to normal proportions, however the surgeons advised me that I would loose all functions of my fingers and thumb on that hand. So I decided to keep it an be able to use it, a small reminder. We all have our scars, my hand is mine (and not forgetting the few scars on my face) This reconstructive surgery changed my life. Poland syndrome has defined my entire life, it does not define me anymore.
It is OK to be different. It's ok to be an introvert.
My mantra
Here in the modern world we are camouflaged and surrounded by diversion and distractions. Our phones, our tv's, our internet and other visual media provide a huge forea of tantalizing alternative points of concentration to distract us from our every day lives. Not just our lives but also our problems/difficulties and anxieties. This modern technological world protects us from awkward situations and things we don't really want to deal with. Take this all away and what do you have left? Your true exposed self, people and raw emotion on display.
It is only through travelling to other parts of the world and experiencing extreme poverty and natural disasters with my own eyes that my thought processes began to change. I attended community events in the remotest pacific islands where I hat to sit with village chiefs and share tears, stories and laughter. To experience the death of loved ones in the poorest communities, to be invited to share these private and inner family circles was an honour... and a liberation of my own emotional stagnation.
Some travel stories that have shaped my mentality.
In May of 2009 during my scuba instructor training, a powerful magnitude-7.3 earthquake shook the western Caribbean. I was in bed after having several drinks to celebrate a day off the next day. I suddenly woke up panicking that I was being robbed. I thought someone was on my bed as it was shaking so violently. The shaking intensified so much that I fell off the bed and onto the floor. I then clumsily bounced around trying to stabilize myself through all the shaking. I could hear this deafening loud rumble and people screaming as the sound of bottles smashed on the floor. I realised that I was experiencing an earthquake. After the initial tremor stopped I ran out side not knowing what to expect. I sat down to reflect on what had just happened. Unbelievably my travel buddies had slept through it and were still in bed completely intoxicated! A couple came rushing out of their room with their backpacks on with an urgent expression on their faces. I asked them where they were going? They said to high ground because of a tsunami risk as we were right on the beach. They looked at me with bewilderment as to why I was just sitting there. Then as I watched them hurriedly disappear up the road and into the distance it slowly dawned on me that I should probably run to. Then a strange dilemma hit me... Do I run without waking up my friends and let them potentially snooze to their death? The guilt would haunt me forever. Trying to wake them up would take valuable seconds away from the potentially dangerous situation. Hurry up Chad no time to think! So I ran to their rooms banging on the doors as frantically and loudly as I could. One of them told me to go away as he thought I was just some drunken idiot. I shouted earthquake! to the other one and he just said yeah right... and continued to snooze. I kept shouting and banging till they were both awake and they realised what was going on. The screams of many other people piercing through the air helped me with this quest. Great job done! they are awake and their future is in their own hands, now time to go!. I ran to the communal kitchen to grab my bottle of water when I discovered this woman had broke in from the street and was trying to steal everyone's water. She was panicking and stating that she must collect drinking water. She asked if she could take my friends as they were still in their room. I angrily shouted at her "No of course not!" but she tried to take them anyway. I grabbed the bottles from her and pushed her out on the street and off she ran. All this within a few minutes of the initial quake. I was shocked at how quickly someone could fall into such a state of panic that their first reaction would be to steal from other people who were asleep. We then spent several hours up on a hill until the tsunami warning was eventually lifted. The after shocks continued throughout the day and night. I remember seeing the 'water stealing lady' in a bar a couple nights later. She waved at me and said: "Hello, nice to see you" as if nothing had happened. She was oblivious to the animosity that I felt for towards her. I learned a valuable lesson about humanity that day. We later learned that the epicenter of the quake was only 20 km away and that there was indeed a tsunami. But luckily it went out to sea and not to land otherwise this would have been a very different story in the record books.
Then there was Fiji.
In 2016 catagory 5 cyclone 'Winston' hit the remote Islands of Fiji. It was the strongest cyclone to hit land fall in the history of the southern hemisphere. It caused $2.5 billion of damage and failed to even make the news in most countries around the world. An experience I will never forget. (Watch it here)
After a day of anxious waiting we managed to get to the local village to help. While I was administering first aid to a small child's foot, a neighbor approached me and asked me if I was hungry and if I wanted to come in for some food as they would be delighted to cook for me. I stared at her in bewilderment as she actually had no home to speak off, just a pile of wood and rubble surrounded her. Accompanied by the stench of infection in the air this was all that remained of her home and her life. Yet in these hours of need exists a golden glow of basic human kindness, a kindness that I had long forgotten. Would I have been able to offer someone the same kindness if my home had just been destroyed? I think not?
I local chief ( a huge pacific islander man) invited me to his house for mothers day celebrations. We celebrated the mother of his children, we sang, we ate and drank the food that they had been preparing on log fires for the past 10 hours. He then broke down in tears while he talked of his own mother who had passed away a few years before. He embraced me and hugged me while crying with genuine emotion. I will never forget this huge black warrior type man crying in my arms. The whole family stood together as we cried and hugged. The chief thanked me, he thanked me for being there and for giving him the opportunity to share with me. I responded and thanked him for sharing with me also. A basic respect and courtesy that I had never experienced before.
I once attended the funeral of a local man, his widow was sat in the middle of a loosely constructed bamboo community hall. She was surrounded by approximately a 100 people. When it was my time to offer my condolences I took my place in front of her, the entire congregation turned there backs as a sign of respect and privacy. Even though they were sitting right next to us. I then spoke to her directly and offered my condolences and gifts. When I finished all the people turned around to face us again. Having to deal with raw emotional situations directly in front of many strangers is awkward but eventually liberating. Especially for someone like me who is traditionally socially awkward.
Watching children play games with with sticks, or climbing fruit trees to claim there own version of candy treats, talking of far away lands and having adventures with nothing but their imagination reminded me of growing up in a very poor family. But even then I was lucky to have toys and tv shows to curb the hours. These kids have nothing, no electricity, no internet, no facebook and more importantly no opportunity. No hope.
I have learned that hope and positivity are two of the most important feelings that humans need to feel. Without them we are lost in a world of darkness. A darkness that I and many other people out there have visited before.
A local fishing boat arrived at our remote NGO base camp in the Fiji islands, a young boy approached us. His dad was having a stroke on the boat and he asked if we could transport him to hospital or had any medicine. My Doctor colleague and myself explained that we had no supplies or means of getting to the hospital as the roads were damaged by the recent storm. We had no choice but to send him on his way back to his family. I will never forget the look of despair and disappointment on that boys face as he turned away. Two days and two strokes later we were able to get that man to hospital, after a 3 hour drive on a rough and slippery jungle road we got him to the local town. I had to carry him over my shoulder up the main road as there was no one to help.
Poverty brings helplessness and a despair that we in the privileged world have long forgotten. A poverty and despair that still exists in many places on this planet. The fingers of poverty stretch far into peoples lives, it effects every decision you make. Do I kill this endangered animal to feed my children or do I let them go hungry?
My point is that experiencing poor and under privileged communities released me of my own emotional bonds, it helped my conquer my own pathetic insecurities and demons. I realised that I was rich. Rich beyond my wildest dreams. I had no money but I had opportunity and privilege. I could fly home, get a job, sleep easy with an insulated and water tight roof over my head and my family would feed me deliciously cooked food of varying vitamins and nutrients. I had 2 legs and two arms, eyes that could see, ears that could hear, I could walk, talk and communicate freely. More so I had the power of choice where others do not.
Although technology can be fantastic if used in the right way, we need to remember the basics and be grateful for them.
Do you think your having a bad day?
Right now there are millions of people being murdered, raped, separated, abused, straving, persecuted for being a different colour, a different religion, a different sex or sexuality and are dieing all over the world. No matter how bad you think your day is, right now there are over a billion people in this world who dream of having your life at this very moment. You have the gift of choice.
What choice are you going to make today?
It is only through travelling to other parts of the world and experiencing extreme poverty and natural disasters with my own eyes that my thought processes began to change. I attended community events in the remotest pacific islands where I hat to sit with village chiefs and share tears, stories and laughter. To experience the death of loved ones in the poorest communities, to be invited to share these private and inner family circles was an honour... and a liberation of my own emotional stagnation.
Some travel stories that have shaped my mentality.
In May of 2009 during my scuba instructor training, a powerful magnitude-7.3 earthquake shook the western Caribbean. I was in bed after having several drinks to celebrate a day off the next day. I suddenly woke up panicking that I was being robbed. I thought someone was on my bed as it was shaking so violently. The shaking intensified so much that I fell off the bed and onto the floor. I then clumsily bounced around trying to stabilize myself through all the shaking. I could hear this deafening loud rumble and people screaming as the sound of bottles smashed on the floor. I realised that I was experiencing an earthquake. After the initial tremor stopped I ran out side not knowing what to expect. I sat down to reflect on what had just happened. Unbelievably my travel buddies had slept through it and were still in bed completely intoxicated! A couple came rushing out of their room with their backpacks on with an urgent expression on their faces. I asked them where they were going? They said to high ground because of a tsunami risk as we were right on the beach. They looked at me with bewilderment as to why I was just sitting there. Then as I watched them hurriedly disappear up the road and into the distance it slowly dawned on me that I should probably run to. Then a strange dilemma hit me... Do I run without waking up my friends and let them potentially snooze to their death? The guilt would haunt me forever. Trying to wake them up would take valuable seconds away from the potentially dangerous situation. Hurry up Chad no time to think! So I ran to their rooms banging on the doors as frantically and loudly as I could. One of them told me to go away as he thought I was just some drunken idiot. I shouted earthquake! to the other one and he just said yeah right... and continued to snooze. I kept shouting and banging till they were both awake and they realised what was going on. The screams of many other people piercing through the air helped me with this quest. Great job done! they are awake and their future is in their own hands, now time to go!. I ran to the communal kitchen to grab my bottle of water when I discovered this woman had broke in from the street and was trying to steal everyone's water. She was panicking and stating that she must collect drinking water. She asked if she could take my friends as they were still in their room. I angrily shouted at her "No of course not!" but she tried to take them anyway. I grabbed the bottles from her and pushed her out on the street and off she ran. All this within a few minutes of the initial quake. I was shocked at how quickly someone could fall into such a state of panic that their first reaction would be to steal from other people who were asleep. We then spent several hours up on a hill until the tsunami warning was eventually lifted. The after shocks continued throughout the day and night. I remember seeing the 'water stealing lady' in a bar a couple nights later. She waved at me and said: "Hello, nice to see you" as if nothing had happened. She was oblivious to the animosity that I felt for towards her. I learned a valuable lesson about humanity that day. We later learned that the epicenter of the quake was only 20 km away and that there was indeed a tsunami. But luckily it went out to sea and not to land otherwise this would have been a very different story in the record books.
Then there was Fiji.
In 2016 catagory 5 cyclone 'Winston' hit the remote Islands of Fiji. It was the strongest cyclone to hit land fall in the history of the southern hemisphere. It caused $2.5 billion of damage and failed to even make the news in most countries around the world. An experience I will never forget. (Watch it here)
After a day of anxious waiting we managed to get to the local village to help. While I was administering first aid to a small child's foot, a neighbor approached me and asked me if I was hungry and if I wanted to come in for some food as they would be delighted to cook for me. I stared at her in bewilderment as she actually had no home to speak off, just a pile of wood and rubble surrounded her. Accompanied by the stench of infection in the air this was all that remained of her home and her life. Yet in these hours of need exists a golden glow of basic human kindness, a kindness that I had long forgotten. Would I have been able to offer someone the same kindness if my home had just been destroyed? I think not?
I local chief ( a huge pacific islander man) invited me to his house for mothers day celebrations. We celebrated the mother of his children, we sang, we ate and drank the food that they had been preparing on log fires for the past 10 hours. He then broke down in tears while he talked of his own mother who had passed away a few years before. He embraced me and hugged me while crying with genuine emotion. I will never forget this huge black warrior type man crying in my arms. The whole family stood together as we cried and hugged. The chief thanked me, he thanked me for being there and for giving him the opportunity to share with me. I responded and thanked him for sharing with me also. A basic respect and courtesy that I had never experienced before.
I once attended the funeral of a local man, his widow was sat in the middle of a loosely constructed bamboo community hall. She was surrounded by approximately a 100 people. When it was my time to offer my condolences I took my place in front of her, the entire congregation turned there backs as a sign of respect and privacy. Even though they were sitting right next to us. I then spoke to her directly and offered my condolences and gifts. When I finished all the people turned around to face us again. Having to deal with raw emotional situations directly in front of many strangers is awkward but eventually liberating. Especially for someone like me who is traditionally socially awkward.
Watching children play games with with sticks, or climbing fruit trees to claim there own version of candy treats, talking of far away lands and having adventures with nothing but their imagination reminded me of growing up in a very poor family. But even then I was lucky to have toys and tv shows to curb the hours. These kids have nothing, no electricity, no internet, no facebook and more importantly no opportunity. No hope.
I have learned that hope and positivity are two of the most important feelings that humans need to feel. Without them we are lost in a world of darkness. A darkness that I and many other people out there have visited before.
A local fishing boat arrived at our remote NGO base camp in the Fiji islands, a young boy approached us. His dad was having a stroke on the boat and he asked if we could transport him to hospital or had any medicine. My Doctor colleague and myself explained that we had no supplies or means of getting to the hospital as the roads were damaged by the recent storm. We had no choice but to send him on his way back to his family. I will never forget the look of despair and disappointment on that boys face as he turned away. Two days and two strokes later we were able to get that man to hospital, after a 3 hour drive on a rough and slippery jungle road we got him to the local town. I had to carry him over my shoulder up the main road as there was no one to help.
Poverty brings helplessness and a despair that we in the privileged world have long forgotten. A poverty and despair that still exists in many places on this planet. The fingers of poverty stretch far into peoples lives, it effects every decision you make. Do I kill this endangered animal to feed my children or do I let them go hungry?
My point is that experiencing poor and under privileged communities released me of my own emotional bonds, it helped my conquer my own pathetic insecurities and demons. I realised that I was rich. Rich beyond my wildest dreams. I had no money but I had opportunity and privilege. I could fly home, get a job, sleep easy with an insulated and water tight roof over my head and my family would feed me deliciously cooked food of varying vitamins and nutrients. I had 2 legs and two arms, eyes that could see, ears that could hear, I could walk, talk and communicate freely. More so I had the power of choice where others do not.
Although technology can be fantastic if used in the right way, we need to remember the basics and be grateful for them.
Do you think your having a bad day?
Right now there are millions of people being murdered, raped, separated, abused, straving, persecuted for being a different colour, a different religion, a different sex or sexuality and are dieing all over the world. No matter how bad you think your day is, right now there are over a billion people in this world who dream of having your life at this very moment. You have the gift of choice.
What choice are you going to make today?
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