In Focus March 2013
Steve Parry is our Head of Year 10 and is also the School Assessment Manager. He is undertaking a charity sea kayaking challenge to raise money for the Royal National Lifeboat Institute and the Anthony Nolan Bone Marrow Trust. Steve and his family have lived on the Wirral for three generations and his father, Dr Gareth Parry, passed away in May 2012 after a 6year illness. During his long working career in West Kirby, Dr Parry was also the voluntary lifeboat doctor for Hoylake and West Kirby crews over a 25 year period. In 2012 he was awarded the Gold Medallion for service to the RNLI although he was not well enough to receive this great honour in person. After losing his father, Steve Parry decided that he wanted to undertake a charitable challenge to raise ÂŁ4000 by sea kayaking the gruelling 30 miles from the lifeboat station in Llandudno along the Welsh coast and ending at the Hoylake lifeboat station on the Wirral. To make this challenge even more impressive Steve had an operation on his back 9 years ago and his first time in a sea kayak was in November 2012.
Diary of a Sea Kayaker Since losing my Dad last year, I have found life pretty hard going. The impact of losing someone that you are so close to is something that you never get over or indeed should feel that you
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have to but, to help me focus on the positive things in life, I decided that I would set myself a challenge to raise ÂŁ2000 for the RNLI and ÂŁ2000 for the Anthony Nolan Bone Marrow Trust. My father supported the RNLI during his life by being the doctor to the Hoylake and West Kirby crews and he was also on stand-by in case there was ever a need to have a doctor on board during any of the emergency call outs. My father had volunteered these services for almost 26 years and as a result he was awarded the gold medallion for length of service early in 2012 which is something that he was extremely proud of. In 2006 he was diagnosed with Myeloma and during his illness the doctors used the skills and medical techniques that the Anthony Nolan Bone Marrow Trust have developed: I have also been on their donor register since my Grandmother died from Leukaemia when I was a teenager. They are a fantastic charity and save lives every day by matching voluntary donors with patients suffering from a wide range of blood disorders. In November 2012, I and Steve Guinness (Head of Design and Technology) went to Anglesey to do a sea kayak course with Adventure Elements. We arrived on Anglesey early in the morning and only had a short wait before James Stevenson from Adventure Elements arrived in his van. His happy demeanour calmed us both instantly and the fun was soon to begin. We got down to business with some excellent background teaching from James. Tidal information and kit details were coming thick and fast. The boats looked huge, 17 and a half foot to be exact, much bigger than anything I'd ever seen before. We loaded up the van and headed across the island to Moelfre on the east coast. We kitted up and got down to the waters edge. Within minutes we were on the water. I was extremely glad that the sea was so calm as it was going to make things a lot easier for a couple of novices on our first sea kayaking outing. Once on the water I was amazed at how wobbly everything felt. I was twitching like mad to keep things level and the immensity of the challenge that I had set myself was starting to sink in. After a quick introduction on the water from James and a