1. David Smith MBE - Paralympic gold medallist despite life changing challenges

In 2010, David was diagnosed with a rare tumor growing into his spinal cord in his neck. Following removal of the tumor, he built himself back from scratch, literally teaching himself how to walk again.  Remarkably less than two years later, he won a gold medal in the London 2012 Paralympicsin the mixed Cox four. He then switched sports and joined the British paracycling team with aspirations to go to the Rio Paralympics in 2016. Sadly, henever made it there because a few months prior to competition, he was told that his tumor had returned.  Now, six years on from that, and he has had in total six surgeries to remove the tumor with each further surgery, bringing new life-changing challenges.  Following his most recent surgery in 2017, he became paralysed on one side of his body and now lives his life with a spinal cord injury. Despite this, David continues to defy the odds and is still passionate about sports choosing to spend his time cycling up crazy high mountains.

I'm continuously inspired by David's story and I loved this conversation where we got deep and philosophical entering a discussion around ‘what is my why’, the importance of personal values, where David found his resilience and so much more. 

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