Climbing, Flying, Bikes and Cancer

Dave is a busy bee, and always has been. Once fairly affectionately called "The Highlander" due to the fact that his work colleagues reckoned he'd have to be 200 years old to fit as much in as he has, he hopes to help some people realise that they can lead full lives after various challenges...

...His house cleaning and personal administration skills remain a little poor though.

He's raced motorbikes, fought karate, climbed, boxed and been a civilian member and party leader in RAF Mountain Rescue. He then went to Salford University to train as a Prosthetist and Orthotist, climb, fly, teach circuits and box a bit more in 1995. He now works in a job where he can apply his interest and specialisation in functional biomechanics, sports, diabetes and carbon fibre design.


Sports don't come easy to Dave and he has to work really hard to raise himself above his Mr Average genetics, but he sticks at it. So he's ended up being half decent at most things in the end, except for road racing. He was pants at that, but still enjoyed it.


1993 was a bad year for Dave. He was diagnosed with bowel cancer, had surgery to remove half of his bowel and had 6 months of Chemotherapy. The healthcare staff were awesome in Velindre Hospital, Cardiff; but it was a bad 18 months. There were highlights though: One was getting a rollocking from the Consultant (Professor Maughan) for riding 20 miles into hospital for his chemo, after swimming a couple of miles in the morning, and then doing lunch time and evening circuits. They said Dave could train, but possibly didn't realise how much some people like the gym and the great outdoors! Some sports he had to give up because he couldn't pass a medical at that time, though.

Another highlight was one which happened after Dave made himself ill, unsurprisingly, through over activity halfway up a mountain with a mountain rescue recruit. Oops. His bowel packed in and he got very, very ill. Prof Maughan told Dave later that he was, "Full of faeces", to which Dave replied that it wasn't the first time he had been told that. A swift clip on the ear from an X-ray followed! That was a good time in an otherwise barren landscape.

All is good now.

But working life and contentment led to nothing but paragliding for a few years. It's not a fitness orientated sport, but it's fun.

Dave started mountain biking in 2003 after a bad flying accident. He fell 1000ft after a "stunt" went wrong. After this, and for a few months, he was unable to get his arms into the flying position but could ride his motorbike. At the same time he was being cajoled by his mountain biking friends about being fat. So he got a bike and started chasing them down, and shrinking quite rapidly too. He started to get quite fit and lose some of his couch potato shaping so he entered Clic24, 24hr ride for charity, and came 3rd with 170miles of riding.

As an ex motocross and pretend road racer (2stroke) Dave likes his riding to be hard on the body. The more gnarly, the better. Gnarl is for shredding and bikes are built for gnarl, apparently! Give him a tech fest any day!

After Clic his mind was made up. Structured training and a lifestyle change were all that were needed. The next year, 2006, he came 2nd at Clic with 220miles under his belt. He also tried, foolishly, to do 3 "proper" races that year for charity and ended up in hospital having surgery because of a chronic illness. He had a stressful job at the time, and none of the other races went well.

The job was changed to reduce stresses.

He got carted off to hospital in 2007 at Twentyfour12 with hyponatraemia (overhydration, sort of), and this was an exercise in the stupidity gained through inexperience.

Now firm friends with the Extreme Endurance team (and 2 ½ stone lighter), he started picking up bits of information and using it… 4th place (2008) in Twentyfour12. This was followed up by a class 2nd in 2009's Relentless24.

Dave's aims are to keep up with Clive on the downhill, keep up with Rob and James on the ups, and be as laid back as Rich everywhere else. These guys are his mates and inspiration.

Just don't make the mistake of telling him something can't be done!