Ben Pate - Racing Round The World : April 2013

My Story

After being born and diagnosed with deafness in my right ear, I never really gave the disability much thought apart from the obvious annoyances of having to walk on the right, sit on the right, do everything with anyone – on the right. It was only when I was unable to complete a solo flight scholarship due to my deafness with Air Cadets, that I realised I would not be allowed to join the RAF as a pilot. I then understood the limitations that the disability brought to my life. Following this, I took the mentality that I may be limited, but I can do mostly anything. Mostly anything turned into chasing another career path to become a Test Driver. After working in this field for a number of years, I’ve decided to take a career break to take on something truly special – A Round the World Yacht Race.

The Clipper Round the World Yacht Race is a 40,000 mile circumnavigation of the globe - The longest yacht race in the world. 12 identical 70ft racing yachts, with a crew of 22 on board will race 8 legs with 15 stopovers over 6 continents. We will experience bone numbing freezing conditions in the southern ocean. Hot sweaty, energy sapping temperatures in the tropics. Waves the size of houses in the Pacific, and frustrating zones of zero wind in the doldrums. It's a race to test the physical and mental side of a person working with strangers, when sleep deprived, in a pressure cooker that is a racing yacht. This is no holiday - More people have climbed Everest, than sailed around the world.....

Work hard, be good and don't take it seriously. Then you can do anything @deafnessuk @clipperrace

Deafness Research UK / Action on Hearing

This challenge for me, is one to truly test my ability to work around my deafness in an environment where hearing or not hearing your crew mates can be the difference between winning or losing, or what is a real possibility, the difference between a serious injury or not.

I've set up an affiliation with Deafness Research UK who has now been merged with Action on Hearing Loss, as I believe these charities best support the research of hearing loss and the development of cures for the future.

I've suffered in my life with my disability; therefore I would like to do anything I can to help others in the same situation and help benefit their lives.

The overall message I'm trying to send out, is no matter what you restriction in life, you can do anything you want. You just need to go and do it. Please help my race campaign and donate to this great charity.

http://www.deafnessresearch.org.uk/

http://www.actiononhearingloss.org.uk/

My Story

Tuesday, 30 April 2013

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