This is a little bit about me and my story.
First off My grandad got me into coastal foraging at a very young age. Taking me rock pooling for winkles and different types of Seaweed with my brother and cousins. My dad also used to take me and my brother fishing and crabbing on the north east coast. I pretty much grew up in the outdoors, making dens in the woods with my friends, then onto wild camping in my local area after i bought my first hammock and i was hooked into the hammock life.
I got the climbing bug in school as we were lucky enough to have a climbing wall and then progressed to climbing every night after work, then on weekends i would be away to the lakes, wild camping with my hammock and bivi, looking for the perfect climbing location. Hidden waterfalls and valleys, secret caves etc.
I have also done solos in caves for 3 nights, lots of hiking in the lakes generally over 2/3 days. but unfortunately about 12 years ago (2008), my health started to get bad and they couldn't work out what it was.
They thought it was a hernia, but 4 years later i snapped my ligaments and tendons in both groins. i lost use of both legs and had to go in for urgent surgery.
"9 major surgeries later, I am still recovering from my last major surgery in may (2017) but will more than likely need more -(update: I have recently found out that I need to undergo another 2 procedures). one of those was in February (2019) now awaiting further scans. The battle continues!
Update : 2020, waiting to see a previous surgeon about current ongoing issues with pain and lack of mobility.
I've still got the climbing bug. So hopefully one day I'll be able to get back to it!
So with my hips being bad, I had to start trying to lighten the load after my 1st surgery. That's where the bushcraft and foraging started to play a bigger role in my life, after all Knowledge weighs nothing. (My hips liked that idea). I've been using crutches/walking sticks for the last 6/7 year now. Hopefully one day I'll be able to get rid of them for good!
Anyway. So that started my journey into bushcraft and foraging. All self taught/studied and went on to do my advanced level 3 in plant identification for wild food and medicine, with John Ryder at the woodcraft school. I have since then started the journey into opening my own bushcraft and foraging school, to allow me to do what i love and to work around my ill health. I opened the doors in 2018, but lost the land, but now Im re opening this year in a new beautiful ancient woodland! After spending most of 2019 building up the site, putting up a roundhouse/tipi parachute groupshelter, and a long drop on site aswell. A few finishing touches to make before the doors open again back end of March.
So far I've been teaching private bushcraft and foraging sessions, on and off site. teaching schools, I've been doing some work at my local community center, for Durham activity day unit helping people recover from strokes and brain injurys. I've also do work with the scout leaders of county durham teaching them a whole range of skills for them to pass on to the scouts, cubs, beavers of county durham.
Here's some links to my business page, website, social media so yous can see what I get up to! And hopefully see yous at an event/course!