It was the summer of 1980 myself along with three school pals and two teachers set of to the Island of Arran in Scotland. We had just finished high school in the May and our final part of the silver award was to carry out our expedition in the June. Day two we left our teachers behind and set off on what was the start of an adventure that would change my life forever. We had spent of first night out and the following morning one of the group was taken ill. Fortunately we had arranged a rendezvous point with our teachers later that morning. Things escalated and our mate collapsed and stopped breathing, we all took it in turns to carry out emergency first aid and thankfully we managed to stabilise him. I stayed with the patient along with one teacher whilst the others set off to raise the alarm. What felt like an eternity, eventually in the distance we saw the RAF Sea King helicopter. It landed and quickly took our pall to hospital where he spent a week before being discharged having made a full recovery.
As a 16yr old this changed my outlook on life and made me realise if I can be part of a team that can save someone's life you can achieve anything if you put your mind to it. Later on in life I wanted to give something back so I became a special constable for many years and later a team leader for the police cadets. Included in this is The Duke of Edinburgh's Award scheme run by one of the cadet group. I have gone full circle. The memories I have ,the people I have met including Prince Philip himself have made me the person I am today. So any body out there thinking of doing the award scheme go for it. Be amazing