[Music]
so we’re walking into the valley of
silence we’re at 6000 meters on Mount
Everest I’ve got my head down focusing
on one step at a time I’m so exhausted
I don’t feel the earthquake shaking the
ground beneath my feet here this crack
above my head ice breaking loose the
mountain comes alive with this primal
roar
an avalanche is coming straight towards
us and panic sets it I’ve got to move
but trying to walk at altitudes hard
enough never mind trying to run and it’s
too late this suffocating freezing cloud
froze me off my feet
I had always been lonely but now I felt
like the loneliest person on the planet
I’m 19 years old I’m thinking this is it
the question is what was I doing here in
you see it wasn’t the first time that
life had knocked me down I’ve been
climbing a very different ever since I
was nine years old school was just a
different mountain suffering with
childhood epilepsy relentless bullying
and a stammer in my speech which comes
and goes when it likes it like a wasp
but had we smash you got phones for the
frustration of being unable to say my
JT stole every bit of confidence that I
had left I was hopeless at sports I had
no purpose I was never going to be good
enough until I found the outdoors and
outdoor challenges became my way to
overcome these personal challenges I
went from running out of classes with
panic attacks to running races instead
at least until an injury took that
freedom away from me and left me with a
new challenge of depression and the knee
ting Sauder instead and in that dark
time my I needed something to feel good
about myself I needed to achieve
something so big that I could finally
feel proud of and I was just a kid
stupid enough to think that he could
climb to the top of Mount Everest but
climbing ever has seemed the biggest
thing to achieve the ultimate goal and a
way to climb above my own self doubts
and the bullies that slashed my bi tires
at school I when were young we’re all
invincible we think we can take on the
world when society puts all these
barriers in front of us expects us to go
off to university to get a proper job to
buy a house tie the knot go on nice
holidays retire and then what next
there’s always more to life for me at
least
and this goal became my life there was
no turning back and so fast forward four
years of training fundraising
sacrificing failing to make this goal a
reality until 2014 at 18 years old I
found myself at Everest base camp for
the first time looking up the mountain
thinking how on earth would I go in to
climb that thing is I wasn’t that year
ended in the biggest disaster in Everest
history at the time and most importantly
in 2015 we went back a year later
proclaiming from base camp to camp one
moving through the Khumbu Icefall and on
that freezing gray morning it felt like
I had never been on a mountain in my
life but all that exhaustion that pain
was soon forgotten when the Nepal
luckily our team escaped the Avalanche
unharmed we were trapped on the mountain
for two days camp one down below base
camp had been destroyed by a much bigger
avalanche triggered by the earthquake we
got down still in shock to find our home
on the mountain had gone 20 people had
and it seemed so unfair why then why not
us everybody assumes that staying at
base camp is the safest place to be had
we not left base camp that morning it
probably would have killed us just like
staying in our comfort zones kills our
potential and back home those mental
demons were waiting for me they’d never
really gone away and I dared to fight
them by taking on this massive challenge
and I failed twice my friend Richard had
been in the Army and I remember him
saying to me this could be the best
thing that’s ever happened to you and it
got me thinking had I been in that tent
what would I have left behind you know
it was stupid to think that climbing
Everest was going to be this miracle
solution because climb got the mountain
there’s only one way that down again it
wasn’t going to solve anything
and I was never going to feel good
enough for long enough I was going to
have to find something else to fill that
gap
karmak everest wasn’t going to fix my
depression it was just a distraction
from the problem so what if the solution
wasn’t climbing Everest anymore what if
it was helping other people to climb
bears to give them some hope to help
them think differently about their
challenges in life and that goal was so
vast that I may never truly reach the
top but maybe that way we can only keep
getting higher we make the biggest
and so last summer I took on a new
challenge called climb the UK climbing
to the highest points of all 100 UK
counties walking cycling running over
5,000 miles in 72 days and this time
people had a chance to take part of it
raising 25,000 pounds for mental health
and I remember one day in Scotland one
of my followers the supporters had
noticed I was passing inviting around
for coffee so I called in and I learned
that she’d lost her brother to mental
illness just a few weeks earlier she had
cystic fibrosis herself cycling was her
solace and we’d never even met but there
we were somehow connected by these dark
places sharing some hope because
everybody has something they’re dealing
with and it got back on my bike with a
hug
loaded with caramel shortbread and
having met this everyday hero found this
sense of hope that although this
challenge would come to an end
maybe the journey was just beginning
maybe this time I leave something behind
so I’m not saying don’t go after your
goals I’m saying they might not bring
you what you wanted they might bring you
something even better now lastly you’re
probably thinking what would I go back
to Everest if I do it won’t be for
approval because we have to find that
for ourselves it won’t be to fix my
depression because it’s not about our
strength and it won’t be to prove
anybody wrong because there’s nothing
left to prove whether we’re the young
the wise or those that haven’t yet tried
were never too late to change our goals
whichever goal you choose is not about
choosing the biggest but leaving
something bigger behind thank you
[Applause] [Music]
so we’re walking into the valley of
silence we’re at 6000 meters on Mount
Everest I’ve got my head down focusing
on one step at a time I’m so exhausted
I don’t feel the earthquake shaking the
ground beneath my feet here this crack
above my head ice breaking loose the
mountain comes alive with this primal
roar
an avalanche is coming straight towards
us and panic sets it I’ve got to move
but trying to walk at altitudes hard
enough never mind trying to run and it’s
too late this suffocating freezing cloud
froze me off my feet
I had always been lonely but now I felt
like the loneliest person on the planet
I’m 19 years old I’m thinking this is it
the question is what was I doing here in
you see it wasn’t the first time that
life had knocked me down I’ve been
climbing a very different ever since I
was nine years old school was just a
different mountain suffering with
childhood epilepsy relentless bullying
and a stammer in my speech which comes
and goes when it likes it like a wasp
but had we smash you got phones for the
frustration of being unable to say my
JT stole every bit of confidence that I
had left I was hopeless at sports I had
no purpose I was never going to be good
enough until I found the outdoors and
outdoor challenges became my way to
overcome these personal challenges I
went from running out of classes with
panic attacks to running races instead
at least until an injury took that
freedom away from me and left me with a
new challenge of depression and the knee
ting Sauder instead and in that dark
time my I needed something to feel good
about myself I needed to achieve
something so big that I could finally
feel proud of and I was just a kid
stupid enough to think that he could
climb to the top of Mount Everest but
climbing ever has seemed the biggest
thing to achieve the ultimate goal and a
way to climb above my own self doubts
and the bullies that slashed my bi tires
at school I when were young we’re all
invincible we think we can take on the
world when society puts all these
barriers in front of us expects us to go
off to university to get a proper job to
buy a house tie the knot go on nice
holidays retire and then what next
there’s always more to life for me at
least
and this goal became my life there was
no turning back and so fast forward four
years of training fundraising
sacrificing failing to make this goal a
reality until 2014 at 18 years old I
found myself at Everest base camp for
the first time looking up the mountain
thinking how on earth would I go in to
climb that thing is I wasn’t that year
ended in the biggest disaster in Everest
history at the time and most importantly
in 2015 we went back a year later
proclaiming from base camp to camp one
moving through the Khumbu Icefall and on
that freezing gray morning it felt like
I had never been on a mountain in my
life but all that exhaustion that pain
was soon forgotten when the Nepal
luckily our team escaped the Avalanche
unharmed we were trapped on the mountain
for two days camp one down below base
camp had been destroyed by a much bigger
avalanche triggered by the earthquake we
got down still in shock to find our home
on the mountain had gone 20 people had
and it seemed so unfair why then why not
us everybody assumes that staying at
base camp is the safest place to be had
we not left base camp that morning it
probably would have killed us just like
staying in our comfort zones kills our
potential and back home those mental
demons were waiting for me they’d never
really gone away and I dared to fight
them by taking on this massive challenge
and I failed twice my friend Richard had
been in the Army and I remember him
saying to me this could be the best
thing that’s ever happened to you and it
got me thinking had I been in that tent
what would I have left behind you know
it was stupid to think that climbing
Everest was going to be this miracle
solution because climb got the mountain
there’s only one way that down again it
wasn’t going to solve anything
and I was never going to feel good
enough for long enough I was going to
have to find something else to fill that
gap
karmak everest wasn’t going to fix my
depression it was just a distraction
from the problem so what if the solution
wasn’t climbing Everest anymore what if
it was helping other people to climb
bears to give them some hope to help
them think differently about their
challenges in life and that goal was so
vast that I may never truly reach the
top but maybe that way we can only keep
getting higher we make the biggest
and so last summer I took on a new
challenge called climb the UK climbing
to the highest points of all 100 UK
counties walking cycling running over
5,000 miles in 72 days and this time
people had a chance to take part of it
raising 25,000 pounds for mental health
and I remember one day in Scotland one
of my followers the supporters had
noticed I was passing inviting around
for coffee so I called in and I learned
that she’d lost her brother to mental
illness just a few weeks earlier she had
cystic fibrosis herself cycling was her
solace and we’d never even met but there
we were somehow connected by these dark
places sharing some hope because
everybody has something they’re dealing
with and it got back on my bike with a
hug
loaded with caramel shortbread and
having met this everyday hero found this
sense of hope that although this
challenge would come to an end
maybe the journey was just beginning
maybe this time I leave something behind
so I’m not saying don’t go after your
goals I’m saying they might not bring
you what you wanted they might bring you
something even better now lastly you’re
probably thinking what would I go back
to Everest if I do it won’t be for
approval because we have to find that
for ourselves it won’t be to fix my
depression because it’s not about our
strength and it won’t be to prove
anybody wrong because there’s nothing
left to prove whether we’re the young
the wise or those that haven’t yet tried
were never too late to change our goals
whichever goal you choose is not about
choosing the biggest but leaving
something bigger behind thank you
[Applause] [Music]
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