left to live what would you do would you
fly somewhere that you’ve never been
before would you meet a celebrity that
you’ve always wanted to meet would you
do something daring something a bit
different
jump out of a plane perhaps well over
the next 10 minutes I’m gonna try and
convince you why I would spend the last
week of my life by living an adventure
and it all starts with a boy a boy named
Liam Liam was 10 years old when he was
diagnosed with cancer and Liam changed
my life he was my brother he was my
friend
my best friend actually and he was the
most amazing person that I ever met in
the entire world and in 2005 when he was
10 and I was a doctors told him he had
synovial sarcoma a cancer in his left
leg and he was given after a year well
after a year he was his friend sadly
passed away at a similar age a friend
that he met in hospital that’s when it
became apparent to me to Liam and to a
whole family that the same could happen
to him and Liam wasn’t invincible
and shortly after Liam’s cancer was cast
his terminal doctors gave Liam just one
week left to live much like that
scenario opposed to you earlier
imagine being 11 years old and only
having a week left to live what would
you do Liam decided that rather than
being sad and sitting in a corner and
crying for the last week of his life he
wanted to help people he wanted to do
great things he wanted to help people
like him and like his friend who passed
away and then a week went by and Liam
was still here and people going hot on
him probably shouldn’t be here not that
they weren’t that mean about it
but for the sake of the narrative they
were and they were like this is so
confusing why are you still here and
then another week went by and then
another couple of weeks went by doctors
told Liam he wouldn’t live to his
twelfth birthday he proved them wrong
Liam was told that it would never be
able to walk again because of the cancer
in his leg he proved them wrong time and
time again
Liam defied all odds until sadly on the
30th of June 2009 the impostor way he
was aged as 14 years old and his promise
he made to himself in that last week of
his life was to try and help people and
he ended up raising millions of pounds
for charity and he proved to me that you
can do anything if you believe that you
can do it and I remember many things
about the day he passed away I remember
the time remember the weather and I
bought was on TV I remember what I ate
but my most – poignant memories for the
two promises that I made to Liam firstly
that I would try and help other people
in some way however I could and secondly
I think this is a promise that we should
all make to everyone at anytime is that
I would live a great life and I decided
to do that by living every week of my
life as an adventure it started in
January of 2015 and I saw these nutters
going around the world on a bicycle they
were either trying to beat a world
record or they were trying to spend
years and years just cycling around and
doing amazing things and meeting really
cool people I was like I really really
want this challenge so I decided that I
would just do it
so my first kind of point about trying
to live your life as an adventure and
how you should is just to do it to go
out there and do something I decided
with some little savings that I had I
would spend all my money on perching
purchasing a flight to Australia and I
purchased the flight so I had to go
there and cycle around the world and
upon thousands of miles nine months on a
saddle that’s 5% of my life and loads of
Vaseline I started to realize it wasn’t
actually about the challenge it wasn’t
about the number of miles I covered on
my bicycle it wasn’t about the really
really tough times and I was trying to
climb up a hill it was about the people
I met it wasn’t the challenge
it was the adventure it was the
adventure of doing something different
and I was told before I left on my ride
and even during the ride that everything
will go wrong I was told I remember
friends specifically telling me we’re in
a month
Calem you’re gonna die this isn’t good I
don’t really want to be doing this and
and then I was after a month went bars
that oh yeah I’m doing all right here
I’ve only almost been hit by a few cars
it’s not going too bad but everyone was
telling me I’d be marked that didn’t
happen everyone was telling me I’d be
stabbed that didn’t happen everyone was
telling me I’d be invited into strangers
houses and something would go wrong that
didn’t happen and I started to realize
that it would all be okay and I was in
Malaysia I just so I could free
Singapore and Indonesia and Australasia
and everything was being fine but I was
sat down by someone in Malaysia who was
really worried that I was about to enter
into Thailand he said in Thailand
everyone has a gun and it sounds stupid
because it is not everyone has a gun no
one wants to hurt you either people
don’t care you’re there or they’re
really excited by the idea that you’re
living your life as an adventure and
rather than being greeted by people who
didn’t want to help me or didn’t want to
support instead over 400 cyclists join
me within a week I was actually I was
actually greeted by police cars who
would take me through cities and towns
and close off roads that loads and loads
of people would stop their cars and
cheer me on this stranger who didn’t
speak their language who had never been
to Thailand before but was greeted by
people it will all be okay some people
are scared about going on adventures
they’re scared of doing something a bit
different
I was iced
sometimes but have to remember there are
actually people aren’t there to hurt you
people are excited by the fact that
you’re doing something different and
then my other point is that everyone has
a story this is something I think we can
remember every day there everyone around
us everyone in this audience every
single one of you has a story that’s
worth shouting about there’s worth
hearing and less about the challenge of
cycling a bike around the world it more
became about hearing what people have to
say and hearing these incredible stories
I met a man in France his name was Tom
he was 75 years old he was an English
guy I was having a really really tough
day there was a headwind the whole way
it was raining I was feeling fed up I
was in the middle of France in December
in winter the worst time to cycle
through Europe and then I started
speaking to him and he was telling me
about his life story he started off in
the Navy because he wanted to go on an
adventure he wanted to see different
things they’d never seen before I he
quit the Navy decided to go traveling
and then he kept doing things up until
that day I met him aged 60 he crossed
the Amazon rainforest in a canoe aged 65
he he took a camel across the Sahara
Desert aged 70 he went across the Great
Wall of China without telling his wife
that he was going to be going away for a
few weeks and that inspired me I was
like if Tom can do this for his whole
life
why can’t I so I set about thinking
about the next adventure
I didn’t have much time and I didn’t
have much money but the next time that
can actually do something adventurous
was in between my first year at
university and the start the second year
so summer three months so I decided
let’s take an Indian took took around
every single European Union country
because why not
28 countries in a little Indian free
wheeler
it started off me just being excited by
the novelty of an Indian took took
breaks it happened and it doesn’t matter
about the way you voted in or out I
realized that not many people actually
know much about our 27 neighboring
European Union countries I didn’t know
anything about them I’d been to France a
couple of times so why not actually
learn about them speak to people by
taking a little took took through all of
those countries and after going through
these 28 countries on the tik-tok I
started to realize actually every day is
an adventure it’s not about just these
moments where you’re taking a bike
around the world or a tuk-tuk around the
European Union or you’re running a
marathon or you’re doing something
different every single day is some kind
of adventure even on the bad days in
that took – we still met different
people we still heard incredible stories
we still got to see things that we had
never seen before and then I relate that
to these days like I walk through campus
and I see a a new thing that I’ve never
seen before I take a different route to
walk to university or a different way to
cycle and you get to see different
things and by making every little bit
more and more adventurous it just makes
life that little bit better so I hope
I’ve encouraged people in some way to
think how can I make not just the last
week of my life like an adventure how
can I make every day an adventure so I
challenge you and I challenge me this –
actually that when you leave today take
a different route home walk somewhere
different drive somewhere different stop
off and look at what’s around you and
spend five minutes just exploring speak
to someone that you’ve never spoken to
before because everyone has a story
our lives are one big adventure so let’s
make them a little bit more adventurous
thank you you