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SENSE OF ADVENTURE Stephen Fisher, Adventurer First Aid
Wanderlust: Noun, the wish to travel far away and to many different places. Risk: Noun, the possibility of something bad happening.
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new generation of school leavers are preparing to get out there and see the world. Alone or with groups of friends, new friends will also most certainly be made over the coming year! What an amazing and exciting time ahead for them. Many of us have been there I’m sure: Do I go straight off in the summer and work later in the year? Do I work now and go later in the year? Ski season? Africa? Australia? South America? Far East? Travel and work or just travel and explore? Decisions, decisions, choices, choices. It is estimated that some 230,000 young people (aged 18-25) in the UK take a gap year, according to recent statistics. But let’s not just think of school and University leavers - more and more people are taking time out from work, career breaks or just ‘getting out there and seeing the world.’ With affordable air travel, easy international banking and mobile roaming, the world is becoming a smaller and even more enticing place. ‘I’ve always wanted to go to Bali’; ‘I’m going to see India by rail’; ‘I’m going to party in Thailand before I go to Uni.’ And so you jolly well should. It’s a beautiful, fun and amazing world out there: don’t live it through a screen or someone else’s Facebook or Insta. account. However, with travel comes risk! Statistically, 56% of deaths of males between the age of 15-24 are caused by accidents, the same is true for 20% of females. Sadly, I know. By the age of 24 I had lost three friends in two separate tragic accidents. Two lost their lives together in a terrible road accident in the desert of Western Australia during their gap year. The other, shockingly, here the UK. This year, 25 years later, we celebrated the lives of Nick and George over a memorable and moving memorial weekend at the school we all attended. So, after these tragic accidents, did we, as their friends, close down the globe, wrap ourselves in cotton wool and spend the rest of our lives fearing
the thrills of global travel and adventure? No! Many went on to live all over the world. In the last 25 years I am sure we have seen and done things that maybe, just maybe, we only just got away with. But as we get older our knowledge, our appreciation of risk and sense of danger grows, possibly making us shy away from jumping off that waterfall, riding that scooter at night without a helmet or climbing that mountain, slightly off the beaten track, in flip-flops. It is this knowledge and ‘thinking outside the box’ that is now starting to be taught across some of our local schools and in private classes through the ‘Adventurer’ first aid course. Developed with a local former Royal Marine, now HM Coastguard Search & Rescue Paramedic, ‘Adventurer’ is a fun, interactive hands-on course designed to instil excitement and confidence for amazing adventures ahead as well as providing the skills to deal with the unknown in farflung places, be it a head injury from jumping off that waterfall in the jungle, an ‘RTC’ in a crazy capital city somewhere on the globe or even being ‘first on the scene’ here in Sherborne. The aim of ‘Adventurer’ is to instil confidence and skills for exciting, but safe, travel. It’s a truly amazing, fun, beautiful but risky world we live in, so get out there and enjoy it. It’s not the same as seeing a picture on a screen. Go on, ‘Grow your wanderlust, don’t stifle it!’ In Memory of Nick Moore and George Gilroy. 5th February 1994, Western Australia For more information about their six-hour Adventurer First Aid and Global Awareness course for you, your young adventurers or your school, please contact stephen@minfirstaid.co.uk, dorset.minifirstaid.co.uk sherbornetimes.co.uk | 33