Roger Davies – Adventure blog
“LIVE A LIFE TO DIE FOR”
I am Roger Davies and welcome to my Adventure blog – here you will find information about me and my Journey of Recovery from Crime, Addiction and Cancer to Wild Adventures.
On New Year’s Day 2020, I found myself standing in our hallway before two Guinness World Records with ‘Roger Davies’ inscribed on them. Every story has a beginning: mine started at the age of ten, when a surgeon told me I was disabled, never to enjoy physical activities again.
Over time there have been many challenges and demons to fight in my ‘interesting’ roller coaster ride of a life. Through necessity and chance, from a violent criminal and alcoholic, I evolved into an entrepreneur, honorary eccentric, charity worker in Africa and an adventurer. More than half a century later, at the tender age of 71, on Mount Everest, I played in the two highest games of rugby in history, and entered the record books. I relish unusual experiences, from hard core expeditions, pulling my sled over some of the most desolate terrain on the planet, trekking 650 km from Resolute Bay in Canada to the North Pole, to the altitude problems of the world’s highest trek, in the Himalayas, and the fearsome heat of the Sahara. And then there are the extreme rowing challenges, including the brutal and, sadly, ultimately tragic world-record attempt to row across the violent, uncompromising North Atlantic in the world’s toughest rowing race.
I like to think I have done all this with commitment, humour and unbridled enthusiasm. And I only achieved all this by remaining clean and sober, one day at a time, since 2 February 1981. As I have grown older, travelled more and become somewhat better informed, I have come to truly appreciate that time is my most precious resource. I accept that I am trekking, a day at a time, through life – just this once! I choose not to waste the adventure!
Then, at 9.30 a.m. on 29 October 2020, I was given the diagnosis: I had the big C …
And now begins possibly the most challenging and important journey of my life and one which, and I say this with humility, I intend to tackle using the life skills I have acquired in my career as an adventurer. Blessed am I to have the help and support of my wife, close friends, colleagues and an incredible medical team.
As a cancer survivor, I was encouraged to paddle a single kayak across the English Channel from Dungeness, UK to Boulogne, France on 3 August 2021, celebrating six months, to the day, since my last chemotherapy cycle, and on 8 October kayaked the return journey. I smashed it both ways!
While this is my story of transformation, I hope that others (maybe you) will read it and understand that there is no limitation to what human beings can achieve. If there is a message to this book it’s that I’m just an ordinary guy who went out and did extraordinary things.
Believe in yourself; your Mountain is waiting…..