Dec
5
Written by:
Nick
Monday, December 05, 2011 2:51 PM
On Tuesday 29 November I attended Advocating Enterprise, a special event staged by Business Gateway Tayside at Dewars Centre in Perth.
It was without question the most humbling and inspiring business event I have ever attended.
The talks by Gary McEwan (Chief Executive, Enterprise North East Trust) and Ross Tuffee (Co-founder of DogFish Mobile) were both excellent. But their talks were overshadowed by the inspirational and truly outstanding presentation by Jamie Andrew.
In January 1999 Jamie, and his close friend, flat mate and climbing partner Jamie Fisher, successfully climbed the North Face of Les Droites in the French Alps. Then a severe storm closed in and trapped the pair on a tiny ledge near the summit for five days. Eventually a remarkable rescue was effected by helicopter.
Tragically, Jamie Fisher lost his life. Although Jamie Andrew survived he suffered severe frostbite and hypothermia and as a result had both hands and both feet amputated.
From being at the peak of his climbing career Jamie, at the age of 29, had to come to terms with the loss of a close friend in the most dreadful circumstances and the fact that he was a quadruple amputee.
He could have been forgiven for feeling sorry for himself and just giving up. But he took a conscious decision to be positive and with the support of his family, friends and Anna, his girl friend and now wife, he rebuilt his life.
Instead of focusing on things he could not do, Jamie decided to spend time learning how to do everyday tasks such as brushing his teeth without hands. It was not easy but eventually he relearned skills which we all take for granted.
This included walking again - on prosthetic legs - within 3 and half months of the accident.
As each challenge was met Jamie kept looking for new challenges. Walking up small hills and starting to run were among the early achievements. But merely walking or running was not enough for Jamie. The running led to him run the London Marathon and as he relearned how to swim and ride a bike he completed an Iron Man Triathlon.
For those of you who do not know what an Iron Man is – and even for those of you who do – it is an astonishing achievement of physical endurance for an able bodied person, let alone a quadruple amputee.
An Iron Man starts with a 2.4 mile open water swim, followed by a 112 mile bike ride and completed by running a full marathon. In Jamie’s case the swim was in chilly Loch Tay; the cycle ride over a very hilly course from Kenmore to Falkirk; and the marathon run along the Union Canal to Edinburgh. There are easier Iron Man events but perhaps they were not challenging enough for Jamie!
As Jamie said just eight months after the accident that changed his life:
‘….if there's one thing I've learnt over the last eight months, it's that every problem has a solution. Anything is possible.’
In this blog I have merely touched the surface of Jamie’s astonishing life changing story, how he approaches every day challenges and how he continues to set himself incredible physical goals in a wide range of activities.
So the next time you get frustrated at work or you have a problem which appears insurmountable think about what Jamie Andrew has achieved and what he continues to achieve.
Each and every one of us can achieve just about anything we want.......if we truly set our mind to it.
Copyright ©2011 Nick