“After suffering a career-ending injury only 3 years into my dream military career I was faced with two choices; I either let my injury and my circumstances consume me or I focus on what I can control and take ownership of the situation. It was a difficult time but I did the latter and slowly I made steps in the right direction. During this time and my rehabilitation I discovered indoor rowing. Initially 10mins, then 15mins and so on. Eventually I started competing and fell in love with the sport. I was 25 years old and had never rowed before. After months of training and dedicating my mind and body I went on to win the Army championships 2 years in a row. The organic journey did not end there and naturally led to river rowing and then ultimately spiralled into ocean rowing. I have since rowed the Atlantic Ocean twice and am now gearing up to row in the Great Pacific Race 2020. I love sharing my story and drawing parallels from my injury and ocean rowing challenges with the corporate world, high performing teams and all sorts of clubs and groups.”
Key Themes
Mental resilience
The importance of preparation
Adapting to change
Strength through adversity
The power of effective Teamwork
“Duncan was an absolute pleasure to work with. He presented a fantastic live talk and Q&A session as part of our Imray Live series on Facebook, which has since reached more than 5,300 people. Imray customers and the wider sailing and rowing community were inspired by his perseverance, determination and absolute resilience during his round-Britain row. This was especially welcome during the national coronavirus lockdown! My 10 year old daughter especially enjoyed the sections about marine wildlife, but the talk was also full of information about passage planning, navigation, tides, weather and other technical detail of interest to all ages and levels of experience, rowers and the sailing community alike.
Viewers from countries around the world joined the event, including Canada, US, South Africa and Portugal. Duncan was completely unphased by presenting on this platform for the first time and his calm, competent and relaxed manner hit just the right tone.”
When one door closes another one opens
A story of overcoming challenges and excelling in adversity
Talks have been well received by many audiences, including:
