Turning Point Ep.5 David Jarvis: "The Significance of the Goal Must Match the Scale of the Challenge"

He thought he was just chasing recovery through sport, then his body started failing in a way he couldn’t explain. Our guest, British Army veteran and Invictus Games gold medalist David Jarvis, walks us through the moment fatigue, thirst, rapid weight loss, and a shocking drop in cycling performance turned into a diagnosis that nearly killed him: diabetic ketoacidosis and type 1 diabetes.

We get practical about what “constant management” really means. David breaks down blood sugar monitoring, insulin, carb awareness, and the two dangers every type 1 diabetic learns to fear: hypoglycemia that can drop you fast and hyperglycemia that grinds you down over time. He also tells the mental health truth people skip: the anxiety of numbers, the exhaustion of mistakes, and the pressure of trying to train when your body feels unpredictable. Then we follow the turning point, when he decides the goal must match the scale of the challenge, and “gold or nothing” becomes the anchor that keeps him moving.

From the game-changing boost of a continuous glucose monitor to the stress of competing abroad with unfamiliar food, this conversation is about resilience, accountability, and rebuilding identity after military transition. If you’re navigating PTSD recovery, chronic illness, a major career shift, or any season where life feels relentless, you’ll take away a grounded playbook for adapting and repeating when quitting feels easier.

Subscribe for more Turning Point stories, share this with someone who needs a reason to keep going, and leave a review to help the show reach more listeners. What’s one challenge you’re ready to take ownership of today?

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Transcript

Turning Point Series And Today’s Theme

SPEAKER_01 0:23

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to the Murders to Music Podcast. My name is Aaron, I'm your host, and thank you guys so much for coming back for another week. On this week's episode, this is episode number five of the Turning Point series. In the turning point series, we're not going to focus on the trauma and the drama of somebody's story, but we're going to focus on what happened after and the rebuilding, the reconciliation, the restoration of life on the other side of these pitfalls that we all stumble into, whether it's a loss of a job, a marriage, a kid, financial infidelity, whatever it may be. As human beings, we tend to put ourselves in some pretty crappy positions. And as a result, our psyche can take a hit. And as a result, we can find ourselves at the bottom. But every time we're at the bottom, there's a turning point that changes the way we feel and brings us back out of that place. And oftentimes we find we can rebuild lives that we never knew were possible. So on today's show, we're going to talk about purpose emerging from pain. Right? You've heard me say it a thousand times that I believe my pain was for a purpose. And the guest on today's show is a leader, an international founder on this topic. This gentleman has spoken to Parliament in the United Kingdom. He was in the British Army. He's a soldier. He's a warrior. And overnight, just like myself coming out of law enforcement, overnight he was plucked out of the military. He was thrown into an identity crisis. We're not going to talk about that today. On next week's show, we're going to hear all about his story, what he did, and literally war stories, and what it was like during that transformation from military into civilian world. But today we're going to talk about something that he completely didn't expect. We're going to talk about a medical condition that changed his life and the rebuilding and the restoration of positive things that came after that. So in his life, he took a 180-degree turn. I'm not going to tell you too much more about it, but ladies and gentlemen, I want to introduce you to David. And this uh this is happening. I'm interviewing him from Scotland. I'm not in Scotland. He's in Scotland, but that's where it's coming from. So uh David, thank you so much for being on the show.

Invictus Games As A Recovery Tool

Training Plan And Multi Sport Prep

Strange Symptoms And A Performance Crash

Diabetic Ketoacidosis And Type 1 Diagnosis

SPEAKER_03 2:31

Okay, so uh yeah, I spent 21 years in the British Army. I was a communications engineer in the in the Rule Corps Signals. Um I uh I got out in uh January 2022 after a pretty challenging, shall we say, uh medical discharge. Um it was one of those situations where I knew it could happen to me, but I didn't it could happen, but I didn't really think it would happen to me, if that makes sense. So I had no plan, no, no uh clear route forward of what I was gonna do in terms of getting a job, in terms of how to get a job, in terms of how even how to apply for them. Um, I was getting lessons on how to write CVs again for the first time in two decades, you know, it's it's quite challenging when you're not gonna oil. So um, you know, there was a lot of other aspects without going into too much detail, but the it was quite a challenge mentally. Um and I really struggled getting that, going through that transition into civilian life. And um uh rolling the clock forward a bit, uh, after a bit of support from military uh charities, you know, getting some help with the mental health with PTSD and and on the medical side of it as well with my injuries, because there was a an array of reasons why I was medically discharged. I just tell people I'm a walking bag of disaster because there's something wrong with every bit of me, really. It's a lot easier saying that than going through the list, you know. Um so uh so yeah, I got some help from military charities and that linked me in with the Invictus Games. And uh I got in with the uh the Royal British Legion, it was the the national charity that was running Team UK, and and I got selected to represent the country again, and I got uh selected to put the the flag back on my shoulder again, like I've been wearing on my uniform for the past two decades. So it was a really nice feeling getting that. And um the the the main aim of it was really to get myself back on track in a nutshell. Uh get help with my physical injuries, get help with the mental challenges, um, get my confidence back, get the motivation back. You know, I've been a very physically capable individual for a vast majority of my life up to this point. But the the kick in the nuts from getting out was that I kind of lost my weight and it all kind of drifted off if you imagine if you imagine, you know. Um I started drinking more, eating more crap, the fitness died off a little bit as well. Um I was gaining weight, you know. And uh I just needed that that kickstart to get myself back on track again. So the Invictus Games, if you imagine something like the Paralympics, uh a multi-day, multi-sport event that involves multiple countries. It's a little more often than the Paralympics. Um it happens every sort of 18 months to two years. The last one was in Canada last year. Um, and the one before that was the one I attended, which was in Germany in 2023. Um the there are a few other differences as well. So the key one being that it's for serving and ex-serving personnel. So people who take part, they have to be serving their respective countries or have served in their respective countries' armed forces. Um another key fact, a key detail is uh a key detail is that they have to be on what's called the WIS list or be part of the WIS community, the wounded, injured, andor sick community. Um, and it's one of those lists that nobody joins the armed forces in any country to be on. Nobody wants to be on that list. So when you put on it, it therein lies the first mental challenge is is you find out that that short truth that you're no longer invincible. You know, you put the uniform on, you think you can you can take that bit more risk, but you know, that kind of puts paid to that, you know. Um but the other key detail as well, the key difference to the Paralympics is that you can only compete twice in your lifetime. So each time is significant, you know. Um, but the primary aim of it is to help people get or help serving and ex-serving people to to get back on on track again, to help them with their recovery journeys. Um, and that's ultimately what what I wanted to get out of it. So one of the rules is that you can enter any sort of discipline you want to, whether you've got experience with it or not, um, and you can enter as many as you want as long as they don't coincide with the games. So I did that. You know, I wanted to milk as much out of it as I could. So I entered the powerlifting, I entered the um the indoor rowing, swimming, and cycling, uh, which was uh swam to think. So in total, that was for road cycling, it was a criterium race, which is sort of like the last 30k of a Tour de France stage. Uh, a time trial as well, so it's just you against the clock and they set you off every 30 seconds. Um, and you who the winner comes down to who sets the fastest time. Um the indoor rowing was a one-minute best effort, and then later in the day, a four-minute best effort. Um, the powerlifting was quite simply just a bench press, but to keep it fair, everyone was strapped down from the legs, so you couldn't put your feet on the floor, you had to strap down, so people who'd lost limbs and things like that, they could enter as well, and it was relatively fair. Um, that was something completely new to me. I'd never done anything like that before, so that was just something I wanted to try. Um, the swimming was uh 50-meter freestyle, 100-meter freestyle, 50-meter backstroke, and 50-meter breaststroke. Uh and again, I just wanted to have a go, you know. Um, I've got uh significant issues with both my shoulders and my right arm because of accidents from the military. And uh I wanted to take the swim in on to help strengthen my joints again because I was having real problems with it. And uh and that was one of the reasons I took that one. Powerlifting, I wanted to try something new. Indoor rowing, I've done plenty of that for warming up with training, you know. I suppose most people have in a gym, but I've never competed, so I thought let's try something sort of different. And then the cycling is my bread and butter, so um, which again, just to add a bit of context, I only started that because of injuries to my knees uh a few years earlier whilst in the military, so you know, but it's something I've kind of uh embraced, so shall we say. Um, but the story changes quite dramatically halfway through. Um, so after I was selected in the January of 23, signed up to all those sports, taking part in the training camps, doing all the different types of fizz, getting in with the team, making progress is the bottom line. I was getting my confidence back, I was enjoying it. Um and and I was getting that bug back, you know, that whole you know, lifestyle around being physically capable, you know, bread and butter type stuff for being in the military. You've got to be able to run, you've got to be able to carry weight, you've got to be able to do all these arduous activities, and it was coming back, and I was enjoying it. Um at the beginning of May, so I was trying to lose weight and I was measuring it periodically, and at the beginning of the month, I was checking my weight just to see what progress I'd made. And on the 1st of May, I was 86 and a half kilos. Um, and I was taking part in a local uh cycling events, uh, local to me in Northeast Scotland, whereas most of the training camps were in England. Um, and I was doing these local events sporadically, sort of every other week, just to gain experience, you know, doing the time trials and such like. Um, and I had one set for the 8th of May, and it was a course I'd done before. Now, leading up to it from the 1st of May to the 8th, I was noticing that I was more tired, uh, tired more, sorry. I was uh thirsty more often, I was drinking more water as a result. Um, I was uh getting up in the night to go to the toilet, but then I was drinking more, so it made logical sense, but then I was tired more, but then that also linked in and that made sense as well. So none of it was raising any alarm bells. Um I was losing weight a bit quicker than I'd like, so I'd increased my calorie intake. I was eating 4,000 calories a day, um, I think by the second week in May. Um and on the 8th of May, I did this course, and this is where the real red flag started flying because I was six and six and a half minutes, I think, off my previous pace. And we're talking a 10-mile course. Uh what's that, 16 kilometers? Significant uh effects on a course that short would be things like weather, mechanical problems. Um if I'd had some, I don't know, medical issue or something of that nature that it had a significant impact, I might lose 10 seconds, 20 seconds, maybe a minute. But six and a half minutes was is ridiculous. You know, there's something very wrong, especially when I feel like I'm putting in the same amount of effort as I'd done the previous time, you know. So that's where I started paying a lot of attention to what was going on. Um I hadn't really noticed, but I was getting up two or three times in the night last time to go to the toilet. Um that gradually grew to the point where I think by um the second weekend in May, I was going to the toilet night every 90 minutes, like clockwork, throughout the day and night. 24 hours a day I was doing it. This is what was going on. Um I was tired, knackered, I was absolutely hanging out my ass all the time. Um, I was eating more fruit, more fruit juice, you know, things to try and give myself natural, healthy, what I thought was healthy energy. Um bear in mind my one of my second jobs in the military, I was a physical training instructor. So I've got a lot of experience with fitness and nutrition, it looks like. So I was doing everything I I knew to be right, but I wasn't getting the reactions I was expecting to get. So um I think by the 15th of May, I gave in. And by this point, I I'd lost so much weight. Um, I couldn't get a full night's sleep by any, by even uh any close standard to uh to an eight-hour session. I might be lucky if I'd get an hour to 90 minutes of uninterrupted sleep. So I called the doctors on the 15th of May and I said, hey, look, I'm losing all this weight. I'm eating 4,000 calories a day, I'm still training, I'm still working, um, but I'm hanging out my ass doing it. There's something really wrong, and I can't figure out what it is. So um they sent me for tests, and a few days later, on the 19th of May, this is the Friday by this point, um, they called me into the specialists, which was in my local city in Aberdeen at the uh Aberdeen Royal Infirmary. And uh they basically said, Yeah, we we can see what the problem is, it's pretty obvious. You've got something called diabetic ketoacidosis, uh, which basically means my body had been um uh uh smashing its way through all my fat stores and all the energy in my muscles, and the byproduct of that is ketones. And the problem was that there was too many ketones in my body for it to handle, and it was basically turning my blood acidic. Um, and ultimately it was killing me. Um they said that they were amazed I was upright and smiling at them and talking to them, let alone you know, not in a box. That's what they expect to be. And they said it might have only been another couple of days or so, and that's what could have happened. So um, and that's when they said to me, Yeah, that this basically what this means is you're a type 1 diabetic. Your pancreas is not producing the insulin that it's supposed to be producing for your body to be able to process carbohydrates, so sugar, pasta, bread, you know, all that kind of stuff, and the fruit and the fruit juice that I'd been consuming more of, especially in the last week, thinking that that was the problem. Um instead, I'd just been compounding the problem. Um, but that was the 19th of May. It was a bit of a blur after that, if I'm honest, because the significance of type 1 diabetes is that is it requires constant management, day in, day out. Um so I walk in the hospital feeling like crap, you know, not knowing what the problem is, and walk out finding out that I've got to take four finger prick blood tests a day, four needles in my fingers to test my blood sugars, and then I've got to inject five lots of insulin throughout the day. So that's nine needles a day, a standard, like any normal type one diabetic we'd get from the start. Um and it was the 20th of May, the morning, I woke up, I felt the best I'd felt in over two weeks because I had a decent night's sleep. I had insulin in my system. I still was nowhere near what I should be because um I was now 70.3 kilos. Um, that's how much weight I'd lost since the first of May. So it was that uh it was roughly about 26% of my body weight in two weeks. It's just nuts. Um, so yeah, uh a ketone diet is is is is definitely a way to lose weight quickly. Not healthily, mind you, but yeah, I've never lost weight that quick before. Um, but I woke up that morning and I went through my problem-solving process that I've kind of I've learned to develop over time with the military. Um, I just at that time I didn't know how to articulate it, if that makes sense. I just kind of did it. Um, and the first thing uh uh on that list is to do something simple. And for me, it's just to go and get a brew. Um so I woke up at my normal time, you know, the whole body clock set by the military type thing. I was up about five half five in the morning, made myself a cup of coffee, and I sat down at the table. And the second step is to keep it simple. And I like to say give it a kiss. So you keep it super simple, yeah. Um so what I did was I got all the paraphernalia, all the needles, all the spare medication kit, all that kind of jazz that the hospital had given me. And I it was like two shopping bags worth of stuff, literally, that I walked out of the hospital with the day before, and I laid it all out on the kitchen table. Um, and you're talking, uh I've got two kids and my wife, and there's four, you know, it's a four-seater table, so it's not massive, but it covered all the table except where I could put my elbows and my mug of coffee, and that that was it. That's all this stuff that was there. Um and the third step is understanding, literally just that, just to get a level of understanding. Um so I recognized that it was gonna be a significant challenge to take this on, this learn this condition. Um, and I'd taken heed of the fact that the doctor and my team manager had both advised me this the afternoon before that um I should really think about dropping out of the team and focus on getting better. You know, sensible advice, we're not gonna knock it. But um, I knew that this challenge was gonna be nuts. Um, and to take it on, I'd need a real significant goal to keep me focused, you know. So that was where I had like a bit of an epiphany moment. Um, and it was that line where I kind of come up in my head where you know the significance of the goal must match the scale of the challenge. And this was gonna be a nuts level scale challenge, you know. So that's what I did. That's where I kind of had that that idea where I've got to go big or I'm gonna have to stay at home. It can't be about recovery anymore. I've got something far more significant, a far higher priority um situation to deal with. So it's it's go big or go home. So I've got to go for the top spot. That's the only thing that's gonna keep me going for that. I can't just do it to take part anymore. Irrelevant of how significant the event is, it's got to be about me and me proving that I can do this and and keep give myself something to push through the pain barrier, if that makes sense. Um so, and to put it in context, when I say I understood the challenge and what was gonna come, I knew that I would need to test more regularly than what the hospital had advised in order to keep on top of my blood sugars, because there's an array of things that impact your blood sugars, not just from things like climate, uh uh not just what you eat, sorry, but uh but the climate, your rest, how much sleep you've had, your stress levels, um, the kind of training you're doing, all these kinds of factors. There's loads of different factors that impact your blood sugar levels. Um, and with type 1 diabetics, you get two significant events that you've got to try and avoid hypoglycemic events and hyperglycemic events. The first one is where your blood sugar goes low, and that's what could kill you quickly. If someone goes into hypo has a hypo, as we say, um, they can uh basically um get the shakes, break into profuse sweating, um uh collapse on the floor, uh, essentially go into a coma and die. And it can be pretty quick, you know. Um so if we over-medicate with insulin, that can happen. Um the other end of the spectrum, if it goes high, then the problem there is that it has long-term implications. If it stays high and we don't get on top of it within a couple of hours and and we we or we go high regularly, um, it that's where it has impact impact on our nerve endings. It can have issues with our sight, with loss of limbs, feet, and such like extremities. Um, and not to mention various other issues that can impact your organs and so on and so forth. Anything that's related to the nervous system, basically. So the the aim is to keep it in that happy medium in a nutshell. So it requires that constant management. And that's why type 1 diabetes is closely linked to mental health problems, anxiety, and that kind of stuff, you know. Um, because it is quite a challenge for some people. Um so I kind of recognized that, I understood that, and I knew that to keep on top of it, I need to test a lot more often, especially with training in mind, um, and the diet needed to for me to keep doing the things I was doing, uh, all the level of training, you know, all the eating, all the all these calories I needed to take to take on. So, and the proof was in the pudding. By the end of the first week, I was doing eight needles and eight in eight blood tests a day instead of four. By the next week it gone up again and again and again. And the most recorded tests I ever did was 43. 43 in one day. And then there was the insulin injections on top of it. So you're easily looking at maybe 50 plus needles in one 24-hour period. Um, and that's how that's how much of a challenge it was, it was it got to. Um, I don't think I would have been able to start it like that, but it grew to that in a space of a few weeks. Um, but thankfully, the the hospital um uh Aberdeen Normal Infirmary, they the specialists there, they recognized that they couldn't keep up with the rate of learning, where they would normally have someone on a three-month sort of um uh sort of coaching package, so to speak, to help them learn to deal with it, learn to carb count, learn to do the uh uh manage their medication needs and things like that. They would have a three-month package at the end of which they would get something called a continuous glucose monitor. It's like a little button thing that sticks to the back of your arm. And it connects to your phone and it gives you readings of your blood sugars every five minutes. Well, for me, they fast-tracked that, and I got that at the beginning of July. So that's what, six, seven weeks after I was diagnosed. And it was game-changing, literally. Um, it enabled me to react to the trend, the direction the blood sugars were going, rather than um reacting to that moment, if that makes sense, when I did that that blood test um, you know, with the with the old school pinprick and uh and and and meter that I was given. So the the the reason I bring that up is because two weeks after that, so the third week of July, I was doing a PR event for my local council um fitness center. Um they'd given me some help, financial support in terms of using their facilities, and um I was doing this in return. So I was uh doing a little interview, you know, 10 minutes long, that involved them asking questions like, what's your why do you use this facility? What do you get out of it? What do you enjoy most? Is there any favorite bits? You know, the usual kind of questions you might expect to see. Um but the last question they asked was the the key one because that was the first time I laid down the gauntlet and went public with my intent, if that makes sense. Um and they asked me, what were my aspirations around the games? What did I want to achieve? And without waiting a beat, I literally answered simply, the answer to that is simple. I'm going there to win. And that was the first time I said it. And the reason I was there I felt good enough to say it was because I've got that CGM and the two weeks leading up to that, I'd been building my confidence back up because I could react ahead of time to where the direction my blood sugars were going rather than being caught out every time I did a test. Because every one of those previous manual tests was just an example of a mistake, and that wears you down after a while. So it's uh when you're making that many mistakes a day, you know, 40 odd mistakes a day. So um, so yeah, anyway, roll the clock forward again. Um, that was the towards the end of July, into the beginning of September, we're heading off to the games, and um the the funny bit there is I'd done all this planning, I'd been uh uh uh uh been very deliberate with my diet, particularly. So eating things that I knew how my body reacted to so that I could keep better control of it and things like that. I mean, I was eating very, very simply raw broccoli, nuts, boiled eggs, you know, um the deliberate, simple things that didn't have a big impact, if that makes sense, or I knew how my body would react to, as opposed to buying microwave meals, for example, ready meals or things that have got multiple ingredients in, because I just couldn't be sure how my body would react, you know. Um and I hadn't been doing it long enough to have gained that kind of level of knowledge and experience. So um, however, when we got to Germany, um it kind of got through it th thrown on its ass because um I didn't factor in that the German supermarkets, German restaurants, German food is different to British food, you know what I mean? Just like it would be in any culture, of course it would be. Um I just didn't consider that. So stress levels went back through the roof again, as you'd imagine, because we're now days away from competition. There's nothing else I can do training-wise. It's all about making sure my blood sugar levels are maintained, because if I get them wrong, that's gonna have a significant impact on my ability. So uh so yeah, that was quite a stressful few days keeping on top of that, as you'd imagine. Um, but yeah, we got to the game, we got to the day. It was the I think it was the 15th of September was the day of the event. And um, yeah, it was it was quite a blur, really. I got to the start line, set off, did my lap, rolled over the finish line, had no clue what my time was. I rolled into the pit lane. I was literally the last person to find out what my time was because I got into the pit lane, got off my bike with help from my coach because my legs were like jelly. I'd literally left it all out on the track. And I couldn't stand up on my own to start with. So, but then I went off to my little corner where my my kit bag was and just started, you know, overanalysing what I'd done on the track. You know, could I have taken that corner better? Did I need to touch the brakes as hard? You know, all that jazz. Um, and about 20 minutes or so later, my coach came up to me and said, Right, have you have you not heard the news? You know, you've done it. You've you've you've got the gold done, you know. Um, and it was just like a massive wave of pressure just released, if that makes sense. Um, and the best bit I can say there without trying to explain it is it was all on YouTube. Um and the best bit about it was Prince Harry was the guy who actually presented the medal and put the the medal around my neck. Um and it's all on YouTube, and there's a a two-minute clip which um you see him doing that, and the funny story there is his birthday is the same day as my birthday, as my wife's birthday, sorry, which was the same day as the race, the 15th of September. And um he knew that he went over to the barriers um in front of all the world's media. He picked my daughter up, who was uh four years old then, um, lifted her over the barrier, she comes running up, we have a massive, great big cuddle. I go over to my wife, we have a great big emotional moment as a family, all caught in front of the world's media. My wife hates it because they got some clear HD footage of her with her what she calls her ugly crying face, and she absolutely hates it. Um but um but yeah, it was it was an absolutely massive experience. But that emotion that you see us letting go of that was because my wife uh was the only other one who knew just how much pressure I was putting on myself and how what lengths I was going to to get a grip of this condition and get myself to a a capable state to be able to compete. Um and yeah, it was it was just it was hard to explain. It was just like a massive wave just released, if that makes sense. Um, but yeah, it's all there to watch. It's on on YouTube, you know. You can Google um uh Prince Harry metal cyclist in Victus Games, I think you'll probably find me in there. So so yeah, but that's that's the that's the story there.

SPEAKER_01 24:17

Man, thank you so much for sharing. Um that's pretty and and the the event that you competed in was the cycling event?

SPEAKER_03 24:25

Yeah, that's right. It was the the time trial. So it was just me and the clock. There was no one next to me. Um they released people every 30 seconds, so you the person ahead's far enough away to be out of sight. So it's not like you're chasing anyone. It's just and that's why I kind of picked that event out of all the ones I was down for, because um it was just me and the bike. You know, once I'm going, I'm going. I don't I'm not completely oblivious to anything else around me. Um and the only person that can fail at that is me, if that makes sense. I can't blame anybody else for anything going wrong. You know, um, if I get a corner wrong, if I if I don't have the right um energy level or blood sugars go awry, whatever, it's all on me, if that makes sense. Whereas with the swimming or or the powerlifting or the rowing or whatever, I could put blame on the equipment or the the start, the referees or the starters or whatever. Um, it was just me, and that's that's why I wanted to that one.

SPEAKER_01 25:15

That's pretty awesome. And did you compete in any of the other uh events as well during that games?

SPEAKER_03 25:20

Yeah, I still I still did all the others as well, uh, and I still tried to enjoy the most out of it that I could. Um I mean I uh being from Scotland, I've got my own family colours and my kilt, so I made a point of wearing my kilt to every single event. And I've got pictures of me, you see me moving about the area, uh the arena um wearing this kilt. And I think the only other people that did was um I think the Canadians had uh the team, they had a kilt as part of their team one. Um I think but uh it wasn't a proper kilt. I'm gonna say that outright because it's it's not for Scotland, it's not a proper kilt. Sorry guys, you know. But um the uh and yeah, I think on the last day one of my colleagues brought his as well and we wore it to the closing ceremony, but I I was the only one to wear it every day, um, wearing my family colours. Um and yeah, it's uh even on the bike as well. I did a lap around the circuit on my bike without wearing a kilt.

unknown 26:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 26:08

Well, that's awesome, and thank you for sharing uh how your pain became your purpose and you know, when uh ultimately achieving that goal. Then I've I've got to look up that YouTube moment, you know. Um, I don't know about you. When I was doing my thing, emotions weren't high on my list, right? Like feeling emotions and feeling pain and sadness and you know, all that. Uh and now, since I'm out and since the world has changed, like if the wind changes direction, I start crying, you know, and it's just uh a whole new thing. So I want to watch that piece. I think that'd be really special.

SPEAKER_03 26:39

Um Yeah, it it is embarrassing because when when he puts the metal around my neck and then stands back and he does the they do the usual sort of national anthem type things, I just couldn't hold it in. The moment it went around my neck, it was just I'm trying to stay straight faced, but it just it just went all right right from the get-go. Couldn't couldn't hold it.

SPEAKER_01 26:56

Yeah, that's awesome, man. Um, I don't know why we try to do that, especially as men. Like women have no problem, you know, for the most part. But especially as men, I don't know why we try to hold that back. Um, who knows? Machismo thing maybe. The uh so the the thing that broke you ultimately rebuilt you, and that is pretty awesome. Uh as far as your mental health goes, um, how was your mental health at the time that you received the diagnosis? So now you understand what's going on, you're at the doctor, you get diagnosed, you realize this is a considerable life change with up to 50 injections a day at some point in your future. You obviously didn't know that then. But how was your mental health during that time period?

Gold Or Nothing Goal Setting

SPEAKER_03 27:45

So I mentioned my my process. Uh, I appreciate everyone who could have mentioned a couple of steps, but the it that's what keeps me on the straight and arrow, so to speak. Um if I come across a challenge, my first thing I do is is is I try to do that simple thing. So, like I said, for me for that morning particularly, it was just to go and get a brew, just make a cup of tea. No, a cup of coffee in that case, sorry. Um you know, it's a simple thing that you know it'll we have the luxury of being able to do in the Western world, you know. Um so and and I feel that being able to do that gets me off on the right foot. The right that's uh that that step towards a resolution, if that makes sense. The second step being to keep it simple is the idea behind that is is is not to let complexity take over. Because the moment starts getting complex, that's when problems start coming in and it really starts getting uh uh getting real a real challenge to maintain control, if that makes sense. Um and I learned this by through experience as well, because having having not been able to do that in the past and letting things get on top of me, and then just losing complete sight of of what the goal was, what we're trying to do, and how we were trying to do it, um uh is how I learned that, you know. Um third step, the understanding part, that was the bit that was causing me problems in those first two weeks because I couldn't get to that understanding. Um, I mean, I was I was tired all the time, but then I wasn't getting enough sleep. So that was a logical, you know, that all seemed logical there. Um I was thirsty all the time, so I was drinking water, you know, but then I was going to the toilet more. Again, there's a logical process there, you know, but I couldn't explain why I was losing so much weight, and certainly not so quickly, you know. Um, irrelevant of the the amount of calories I was eating, um, the kind of foods I was trying to make sure I was eating. Um, but up to the point where I got the diagnosis, I was I was at my wit's end. I was I was struggling to maintain composure all the time. I was uh I was stressed out all the time, and it was purely because I couldn't get to that state of understanding, if that makes sense. So when the clock when the doctors gave me the diagnosis and said, look, this is the problem, this is what's what's been causing all your dramas, um, it was like that light bulb went off. Um and if I'm perfectly honest, I actually felt relief um in that moment, as daft as that might sound. Um, because the moment they said it, um, I mean, I've read about type diabetes in my textbooks when I did the the physical training qualifications with the military. So I've read about it, I understood it, but I'd never been sort of around people with it over the course of my military career, you know. We you just wouldn't be, you know. Um so when he told me that, it just the dots all aligned, you know. And and whilst it was a crap situation to have to deal with, um, it just gave me that relief that right now I know what the problem is, I can take it a step forward again now. I can keep moving forward with this. Um it was, I mean, it wasn't until the next day that I really appreciated the scale of the challenge and what was going to come, but I I had that that sense of relief that I could keep moving forward, if that makes sense. You know, um yeah, it it sounds daft, but yeah, that was the first reaction I had was relief. You know, it's it's it's something I can I can get control of and I can I can do something about it, you know.

SPEAKER_01 30:44

Yeah, totally. Yeah, I hear you. And on, you know, as you continued, so here we go, we feel some relief. Now you understand why the last two weeks have been hell, and you have an idea as to what your future is going to look like. Um, while that initial feeling might have been relief, as you set your goal, as your goal emerges to be to achieve gold, continue on the games, not let this set you back and achieve gold. There was a journey between that moment of diagnosis and putting the metal on your neck. During that journey, was your mental health and stability smooth sailing? You had your eye on the goal and everything was good, or was there a roller coaster of ups and downs and giving feelings of giving up or giving in or being defeated? Do you understand my question?

Blood Sugar Risks And Daily Reality

SPEAKER_03 32:18

Yeah, yeah. Um, it would definitely be the latter, and I definitely think it would have been a roller coaster that would have massively rivaled Seven Flags by any stretch of the imagination. It was massively up and down. Um the the issue I had was um so I mentioned that the that that blood sugar can be impacted by various different factors. Um one of the key ones is I learned as a result of all this, you know, rolling the clock forward, all this experience doing it all and everything else, is one of the factors was that food takes a period of time to digest, and it can be it can have effects for you know throughout the time it's in your body. So some foods can take three or four days to be fully processed and be out again once you've, you know, after you've consumed it. So the it there's a whole host of effects, and some of them look like there's no rhyme or reason why you might get a spike or you might get a low, and you know. Um the issue there is that that has a real impact on training. So if I if my blood sugars are too high, I feel really lethargic and I can't get the energy out because basically I've got too much sugar in my blood and not enough oxygen there. If we go to the other end of the spectrum and it goes too low, there's too much oxygen, not enough blood sugar, and therefore I start feeling like I'm drunk. You know, you you you um you get sort of light-headed and and fuzzy headed. Um I've heard of people uh that they they really do start showing properly drunk symptoms and they start getting aggressive and things like that as well. Thankfully, I I can't say as I know that ever happened, but uh for me. But um the they have serious impact, physical impacts on the ability to train. So a lot of the time, especially in the first few weeks, I was having to stop what I was doing, um, give myself time for my blood sugar to get back on top of uh come back to where I needed it to be, and then go again, if that makes sense. But then another factor is that if you have big swings regularly, so you go really high down to really low and then you go back up again, that has a uh uh compounding problem in that you can feel really sort of it basically wears you out. It feels makes you feel really tired, you know. It's like an after-effect, if that makes sense, like uh dare I say, a kind of a hangover type thing. So that again has an impact as well. So these things are constantly going on every single day. And to try and combat that, that was why the number of uh blood tests was increasing. Because I was trying to avoid these things happening because I was learning how um they were affecting my body every time it happened. Um, so it was it was a real mental challenge trying to maintain focus, um, which then links back to you know why um I needed that big target, you know, or should I say it, that that high-level pinpoint target, I should say, because obviously I was going for a particular thing. Um, but yeah, it it it it was it's hard, kind of hard to explain now because every time I hit those little challenges, I just went back to the step one of the process and went, right, do something simple. Okay, I need to go for the first step. Let's get the kit out ready to test. This is the result, this is what I need to do, and so on. And I, you know, that that process um it applies to the little challenges as well as the big challenges, if I make sense. And that's how I applied it because the five steps, I should say, I should give you them all because it gives you context. So it's it's um do something simple, give it a kiss, which is to keep it super simple. Yeah. Um understanding, so you get a level of understanding of the problem. You don't need the detail, you don't need to know it in depth. I don't know the medical ins and outs of type or diabetes, but I understand it enough to be able to move forward. Um, the fourth step is to embrace the change and the inevitable mistakes. And I knew I was gonna make a lot of them, and I did. Um, and the last one is to learn, adapt, and repeat. And then go again in a nutshell. So, and it applies to you any level of challenge, and that's exactly what I was doing on a daily basis, several times a day, every time I made one of these mistakes. A mistake might be I do a blood test and go, oh crap, I'm sitting at 12, uh, 12 um uh uh uh um millimoles of uh of sugar per drop of blood or something. I forget what the full thing is. Um it's different in America, they use um it's a higher number, same thing, but they use a different number scale, I think. I can't remember what it is. Um, but if I'm I I need to be sitting between four and ten, that's the ideal range for me. They're the magic numbers for me. So if I go above 10, I need to get on top of that quickly or it's gonna keep going high, you know. If it starts going below four, I need to get on top of that even faster because if I don't, it's you know, I could end up a gibbering wreck on the floor, you know. So um it every time I hit one of those, it was like, right, what's the problem? What can I do about it? What do I need to do first, you know, and then move forward from there, if that makes sense. Um and I was doing this more and more every single day, up until the point where I got that, like I said, that CGM, that continuous glucose monitor. Um that was game-changing because where I was doing the manual tests and having to stop every 15 minutes sometimes, um, out of the pool, off the bike, you know, um, you know, all that kind of stuff, um, throughout the night as well, sometimes as well. Um CGM, what it allowed me to do is it it it tests the um interstitial fluid that sits underneath your skin. So that clear fluid that you get if you take a couple layers of skin off. So it's not directly the blood, but uh it measures that and it can measure it every five minutes. So you that's why um I was able to see the direction my blood sugars were going. Because they don't just drop like that, you know, in an instant. There's there's a trend that will apply, you know, it'll gradually go down or it'll gradually go up. Um, depending on what you've eaten or what you're doing, might depend on the speed of that, you know, of the of the up or down, but you can see it going in that direction before it happens, if that makes sense. It's not just going to suddenly drop by 10 points, it just won't it won't do that. So um that was what why it made a difference because I could see the direction it was going and I could taper what I was doing rather than just making a sudden change, if that makes sense.

SPEAKER_02 37:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 37:53

So I could start eating a small handful of food if it was starting to go low. I could I could start doing a little bit more exercise if it's starting to go high, or I could inject a little tiny bit of insulin. Um I didn't need to I didn't need to wait for the the the big number or the really low number to happen for them to take a significant you know step, if that makes sense. So that's why my confidence started going back up again because I could really move forward at pace, you know, once I got that that that um that dot that sits, you see that lump that sits on the back of my arm. So um, but yeah, before that, I mean it was every time it happened, I had to take do a stop check moment, a commander's pause, as we used to call it, um, and just really try and hone in on why I was doing it um and what I needed to do first. That that's something simple, you know. Um and that happened a few times. I was tested, you know, once or twice uh to it to limits, I think, a few times mentally. Um but it it was just just having to take that conscious step back every time I got to that point um because I had that goal, you know. That's why I needed that goal, because that that forced me to take that step back. Otherwise I was never going to achieve it.

SPEAKER_01 39:01

You know? And when exactly did that purpose, so that goal, I'm gonna call that your purpose, when did that purpose emerge for you? Um, at what point in this process? I know you said it, but emphasize that a little bit for me.

CGM Breakthrough And Confidence Returns

SPEAKER_03 39:13

So my first the the first point that that aspiration came to win a medal um was that morning of the 20th of May, the day after my diagnosis. Um I had no prior aspiration to win the medal. That's that's not what the Invictus Games is about. Um I wanted to get the help on my recovery journey. That's why I applied. That's why I wanted to get out of it. I won and I wanted to milk everything I could. That's why I entered so many different events. Um there were guys that were entering just one because they wanted to focus their efforts, you know. Um I would I just wanted to get the most out of the whole experience, you know. Um so when I got that diagnosis, I woke up in the morning and I got that, I did that something simple, kept it simple, laid it all out on the table, got that level of understanding, recognized the scale of the challenge, and just said, right, I I need a significant goal that matches that scale of the scale of this challenge if I'm gonna keep moving forward because I'm gonna be tested. You know, I knew I knew I would be. I didn't quite recognise how much. Um, I didn't definitely didn't see that I was gonna be doing, you know, so many needles in one day within a month or so of that date. But um, I look back now, I mean, when you see the finishing result, um, if you watch the YouTube video and you what you see the the the board that pops up, you know, the um the final results board that pops up on the screen, um, you'll see that there's only a split second between me and second place. And I think there's 10 seconds or so after that to be to second and third, uh, between second and third, sorry, but um the it was only half a second. So I look back on that now and I think, well, yeah, it was absolutely nuts. There's no way I'd wish that on anyone. There's no way I could have jumped in from zero to hero, zero, zero to zero hero to zero, I should say, um, to fifty jabs a day just like that. Um, because it's just crazy. But if I hadn't done that, if I hadn't done each each one of those jabs every day, that might have cost me that half a second, and I might not have got what I set out to do. So it I definitely look back and think it was worth it. I wouldn't want to do it again, but but it was worth it.

SPEAKER_01 41:02

Well motivated you.

Germany Food Stress And Race Execution

SPEAKER_03 41:04

Well, this might be uh this might be a bit sound a bit odd, but I I I'm not motivated by the idea of winning anything, really. Um I've never had an aspiration to be uh, you know, top of my game or uh to be the best at any particular thing. Um I mean I used to be when I was in the military, because we were I was a uh fitness instructor, we we had to maintain a higher level of fitness than the average soldier. So we were uh infamous for being what they called sport billies. So we'd get roped in when they were short on numbers for certain events and things like that. We'd get roped in to go and help and be that extra player, you know, football or or or soccer as you call it over there. Sorry, you know, um it's definitely colour football just to you know start another argument. I'm not joking. Um but uh but yeah, rugby, um, hockey, athletics, you name it, any kind of event that was going on, if they needed someone to be on a team to fill that spot, someone they knew was physically capable, they would rope us in. Um and that's that's what I enjoyed. I like getting my hand to a lot of different things. I enjoyed the military side of things as well, the the tabbing, the tactical advance to battle training, the the weighted marches and carrying the burgens and all that kind of stuff. I did that loads as well. Um probably didn't help my knees, mind you, but you know, uh but it was worth it, you know. And I I enjoyed all that, but I never had an aspiration to to be the gold, a gold medal seeker of any kind. Um, it was it was something that um came about through circumstance, if that makes sense. Um if that hadn't happened with the diabetes, for example, I would never I wouldn't have been on the podium. I I'm fairly confident of that. Um, because I just wouldn't I didn't have the desire to do it. Um a good example of that um on the same games, for example, is during uh so we did the time trial in the morning, in the afternoon we did the criterion race, and we had a reasonable plan of that I was going to attack as often as I could with the aim of pulling out. So if you imagine a peloton of you know 40 riders or so, um, same idea as the last 20, 30k of a Tour de France stage. Um, this Peloton, um, the intent was I would attack regularly to pull out the strong riders and basically wear them out. I'll ultimately wear myself out in the same process, of course, you know, and I wouldn't necessarily be as competitive at the end, but I I wanted to kind of you know work for my team. Um so the plan was is I would attack, draw out the strong riders, my teammates would jump on their wheels and just draft. So it's kind of like um um what do you call it, um NASCAR racing, where you get them drafting so they save energy, and the guy behind can then put the floor on the floor foot to the floor and he can overtake on the last bend kind of thing. Same idea in cycling. If the guy behind, if you're sitting an inch off the guy's back wheel, you're saving on aerodynamics, uh sorry, you're saving energy because of aerodynamics. So if I'm at the front pulling as hard as I can, dragging the other strong riders from the different teams, my teammates can sit at the back, six wheels back, and they can just be coasting in a nutshell. Um, and that was the idea. Um, the problem was that I attacked and my teammates missed the wheel. Um, and my group ended up with myself, second and third place from the time trialers, and a couple other guys as well. So we had a really strong group um and we got a breakaway and but we stayed away from the entire the Paladin the entire time. Um, but my plan didn't change at the end. Come the last corner, um, I'd made a deal with the the the the uh the Danish, sorry. Um one of them actually featured on the uh documentary that was on Netflix about the Invictus games called The Heart of Invictus. Definitely worth a watch if anyone wants to see it. But he featured on that. And um I I basically said to them, I said, Look, you know, I know it's your last games, I'll I'll I'll work for you. This is my plan. I'm gonna attack at this point, get on my wheel, and I'll get you to that last corner. Um and I did, and I got them through, and they got first and second. Um so I stuck to my guns and held my plan if I Make sense because my motivation, back to your question, the bit that really gets me is the desire to help people. It's one of my I've got two high-level aspirations that haven't changed over the years, and the the most important one is to help people. And it is as loose as that. I do a lot of different things in my local area now, volunteering-wise and charity-wise and everything else, um, to do exactly that because I I that's what gets me off in the day. Uh I want to feel like I've helped people, if that makes sense. Um and and that's what motivates me to do the things that I do. But no point, un except in that um uh after that diagnosis, have I had an aspiration to do something like that for myself, if that makes sense. Um so I hope that makes sense, sort of.

SPEAKER_01 46:04

Yeah, totally makes sense, man. You brought it all together. It totally makes sense. Um talk to me about you said you've got a couple kids and your wife. Yes. Yeah, and how old are your kids?

SPEAKER_03 46:16

So I've got two daughters, um, Emily and Sophia, uh who is four and six, respectively. Uh and the other half, uh Steph, Stephanie, um, she is you'll see, you'll see myself, Stephanie, and Sophia, my eldest, um, in that video if you look it up on YouTube. Um Emily was still in a Pram at the time, so uh, which is you know a few years ago. She was only one at the time, I think. Um, but uh yeah, we let me think. Um so Sophia was born while I was still in the service. Emily technically was born while I was still in the service, but I was a month uh before I was discharged. Um my wife and I, however, um a bit of a soppy story, but we actually met on a pen pal site. We started writing to each other, believe it or not, um whilst uh whilst I was on tour. Um but we met in what, 2009? And then we got married in 2013, and we've been together ever since. So nice.

SPEAKER_01 47:06

What kind of impact do you think you're having uh on your family? You know, your your kids are young, but what kind of impact has this had on your wife?

SPEAKER_03 47:15

So I'm gonna go back to that video again that I mentioned, the YouTube video. Um if you watch that and you see the emotion in it, um, Steph, I mean, uh yeah, I I I obviously got the medal and I was doing the training, but somebody had to do all the all the other stuff, you know, the looking after the household, um, keeping the kids in check, all this kind of jazz as well. Um the putting up with me having my bad days, which there were plenty of, you know, um in the all the stresses trying to deal with this condition and banging my head off the wall when I couldn't figure out what was going on and all that kind of jazz. Steph was there to kind of be the backbone, so to speak, you know, and keep everything together. So um she's the only one who saw just how much was going on and and was so involved in it as well. So um the the medal I got, you know, she deserves as much credit for getting it as I did, you know. Um and that's why you see so much emotion in that video. Um, I mean, like I said, you see her ugly crying face, she really hates it because it really is her ugly crying face. Um love her to bits, but you know um I can't say anything. I've got a face for radio, so you know. But um, yeah, it it's it's that the video says it all. Uh I I can't there's no there's not really any words to describe that really, but she saw it all, she she she held it all together in terms of everything else that was going on around me, trying to figure out this condition and train with it, if that makes sense.

Medal Moment And Family Emotions

SPEAKER_01 48:32

Yeah, it totally makes sense. I think that you know it's cliche ish to say, but I do believe there's a strong woman behind every mediocre man, you know. Um we would be the things that we can accomplish would be impossible, especially if we have a family without a strong woman in our corner. Um they're the backbone of everything that we do. And uh it's it's pretty impressive. You know, my wife is the same way, my wife is an absolute 10. You know, we should have been divorced, we've been married 27 years, we probably should have been divorced 27 times, and it's all because of her strength that uh we're still together. And so I I totally get it. And you know, when one wins, we all win. Absolutely. Out of this whole process from leaving the military to winning the gold, what was your lowest point uh mentally?

Mental Health Swings And Five Steps

SPEAKER_03 49:25

Um so my lowest point mentally would have been a year, a year before the diagnosis. So um I'd been out in the military for four, five months, if or so at this point. Um we had a really small house when I first got out. Um Emily was born right before I got out, and the job that I went into involved me working from home as well. So we had a small end-terrace two-bedroom house. And the the we realized relatively quickly that it wasn't going to be big enough for a family of four and me working from home as well. So we started looking around, you know, to get somewhere with uh three, four bedrooms, you know. And we found somewhere we thought it was all going right. But over the time I was in the military, I dare I say it was institutionalized and I didn't really give that much thought to like credit scores and affordability scores and you know, all that stuff involved with financial literacy, you know. Um so come uh June time, sorry, end of May, beginning June, we were at a point where we'd sold the old house, we were getting ready to move out of it. Um uh we'd been sort of packing stuff up ready to go, and the bank called us up and said that uh they couldn't give us a mortgage because um basically the mortgage fell through because they my affordability score was up my ass. And the reason being was because um I'd obviously left a full-time job and started a new one, so that's a bit of a red flag straight away. Um I had a car finance agreement, you know, like most people do, that um they didn't they were concerned that I wouldn't be able to afford, you know, and that was well as a mortgage. Um and uh, you know, it was all these sorts of factors that were rolling in. And the result of that was is that the because the mortgage fell through, I had to make a number of changes to my to my my affordability score, uh, get rid of the car, get rid of a few other bits, you know, make myself more uh uh affordable get that affordability score up so the banks I was more appetizing to the bank, if that makes sense. Um and that took a period of time. So and I was actually sofa surfing um during that period. So I think it was we we moved out of the old house. I think it was the just right at the beginning of mid-June. So I say beginning of mid-June, sorry, about the 12th, 13th or so of June. Um we moved into the new one uh towards the back end of July. Um so uh I was kind of stopping on sofas at my parents' house, a place like that, you know. I'm a mum uh my my sorry my wife and my kids stayed down with my uh uh uh my in-laws, which was down in England, and uh whilst I was kind of figuring out the house. I've got it all sorted in the end, but the lowest point was, well, I'm about to make my kids homeless, you know. Um don't get me wrong, we'd have figured something out, but it was that idea that, you know, I've I've fucked this up enough, excuse my French, I've I've balls this up enough that I've got no um, you know, we're gonna lose it all, you know. Um and it's not about me, it's about the fact that I can't provide for my family, you know. Um I've either I've been booted out of the military, I've been um, and there's a bit more to that story as well, but we can say that for another time. Um I've uh I I didn't know what I was gonna do. The I didn't put pay any attention to my finances and and then how I was gonna manage that. And as a result, I'd nearly, you know, put my family on its arse on its on its arse, basically. So that was probably the lowest point, if that makes sense. And with the but f fast forwarding back to the diagnosis, because I've got no because neither of my parents or my brothers and sisters, I'm one of five, because none of them have got type one, um, there's no direct lineage. Uh the doctors, which is usually the reason why people get type one, um the doctors think that it's possible that it was the stresses as a result of the medical discharge that uh had did damage to my autoimmune system, and that's potentially what caused my type 1. So it's just that we went into something called uh the honeymoon effect, which is where your pancreas gets jump started into reproduce insulin again. And um they think that that's what might have happened around the medical discharge period, which is why I didn't notice anything at that time. Um, but when you roll the clock forward to the May, to that beginning of May, when I started noticing th symptoms, that's when my pancreas just gave up the ghost and went, nah, sodgy, you can have it all now. So um, yeah, that's what they think, think is the reason for it. So that was definitely my lowest point, and it was because of the fact that um I was obviously failing as a as a provider, you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_01 53:38

Yeah, I do know what you mean. Let me ask you this from that lowest point to what I'm gonna call the highest point of winning the gold, what was the exact moment that the tide started to turn for you and things started to turn around and look up?

SPEAKER_03 53:57

Um, so there's a bit of a funny story for this one. So um the poster that's behind me over my uh right shoulder or left as you're looking at me uh Can you read it?

SPEAKER_01 54:08

Can you read it to me what it says?

SPEAKER_03 54:10

Yeah, yeah. It says, I am the master of my fate. And that uh believe it or not, so I wouldn't I didn't just walk away the Invictus Games as a gold medalist, I also walked away as a thief, I'll be honest. So it was actually a piece of memorabilia that was at the stadium. And um I did do it under the supervision of a security guard, technically. So I suppose you could say it wasn't really stealing them. So um, yeah, I I'd walk past it numerous times every single day because you've got to go through the arena to get to the athletes' village and all that kind of stuff and all the different events going on. So I'd walk past it so many times over the whole week that we were there without batting an eyelid. And it wasn't until the day after the race, you know, after the closing ceremony, that I'd walk past it again, stopped and looked at it, and went, hang on a second. I've just done exactly that. I've just proved that message, and it just resonated with me, just like just like a light bulb had gone off in that specific moment. Um and the funny part is I turned to the security guard and it was 10 feet away and went, Look, mate, I'm having that. Um, just giving you pre-warning. So, you know, and he just he didn't just turned around and said, Yeah, uh you could see it was serious. He just said, Yeah, go on then, just don't take the frame. So, and that was that. So, I rolled that up, packed it in my bag, and took it home and paid a guy to put a frame around it. Um, but that was really the moment where I realized the significance of what I'd just done, if that makes sense. Yeah. Um, I've just taken this absolute kick in the nuts and uh, you know, with this diagnosis, gone through all the pains it'd given me, achieved what I'd set out to do, for the first time I'd ever set out a goal like to achieve a goal like that, you know, um on that kind of scale. And um, I'd done it, you know. You know, even if it was only half a second between me and second place, you know, as uh as uh um Din Diesel said in what is it, fast and furious, winning's winning, isn't it? So, you know, by an inch or a mile, it's still winning. So I was like, you know what? That's I am, I am the master of my fate.

SPEAKER_01 55:57

That's pretty awesome, man. So where can people find you now? What do you have going on out there and what are your what are your current goals? What are you doing?

Service Mindset And Helping Others

SPEAKER_03 56:05

So um the the funny story on this bit is that I'd never set out to be a speaker. Um I actually got um asked to do it initially. Um I let me think I got back from the games in September of 23, and my local council, who had done that PR event I mentioned earlier, um, they asked me to come and speak at my local school. And it was for uh a kid's age between what, five and twelve, something like that. Um and I just brought over a lot of the bump that you see behind me, um my bike and a few other bits, military memorabilia and such like. And um, and I just went down and told them some stories about these things, you know, let them ask some questions. You know, I've learned that kids are like magpies, they see something shiny, they just want to know about it, you know. So all these hands went up, and I think there's a photograph of on my website, which is the first one. It's it's the easy way to get hold of me is through my website, which is um at speakingsbc.com. Um and uh uh you see all this photograph from the back of the room where you see all these kids with hands up and me just sit there pointing at people and so on. Um and I just got a bit of a bug for it, but the the chain of events that happened kind of happened on its own, if I make sense. So another school heard about it, and then another one and another one, and I started doing a few more. Um, and I then got pinged for uh an award, which was somewhere up behind me, um, uh a local sports award. And the main sponsors of that award are the ones that first said, look, you need to start doing this. You know, people like your stories, and like the Joker says in that Batman movie, if you're good at something, don't do it for free. So um, so yeah, that was the 15th of March uh 2024. I got that award. Uh on the 16th is the day I Googled how to start a business and and got it all registered and started working towards that. So it started out as me just doing keynote and after dinner speaking and motivational speaking and things like that, and just uh trying to uh use my stories to um motivate and inspire people to adapt to life's challenges is the line I use. Um now I am looking at the idea of finishing a book, um, how to guide slash personal memoir, um, with the aim of using my experience to help people develop their personal resilience. Um and with the aim of taking maybe that a stitch further is to maybe start like uh some kind of coaching type thing, um, particularly with uh school leavers or people going through a significant transition in life, um, with the help main aim of helping them to develop their personal resilience and and keep moving forward in a nutshell. Um, because it doesn't need to be aimed at a gold medal, it can be aimed at anything, you know. Um challenges come in any form, as as my life kind of shows. Um so why why should it just be limited to, for example, helping people with diabetes or helping people in sport or or you know, helping people, you know, get a new car or whatever the challenge might be. Why can't it be any kind of resilience, any kind of uh challenge, sorry, uh with the aim of helping people to develop that what I call the resilience, the safety net of resilience, I should say, because every strand in that net, every string in that net pulls on a different thing. So multiple income streams, for example, um, having like two cars in the family, for example, having um uh using solar to provide energy or having a log fire so you can still boil water if the power goes out. Um, you know, it could be learning new skills, going on YouTube and learning, spending 30 minutes learning to do a high value skill and then building on that, you know, over a year. You'd be nigh on a friggin' expert by the end of a year if you keep doing it. But it's all things that you can every one of these little things. Sorry, there's no one of these things that will make you resilient. It's doing bits of all of it that makes you resilient, and that's where the safety net comes in, if that makes sense. So um it's something we're not taught about in school. Um, I think it's something that uh that would be really helpful to school leavers, which is why I've kind of got that idea to to work with them. Um and a lot of the in-person talks I do around my area are with that age group as well, uh, for that reason. But also those like getting out the military or getting out the services, you know, it it's a massive kick in the nuts going from a way of life you're used to for a period of time to then having to try and figure it all out from scratch again, you know. Um I mean, I was learning to write CVs again on the way out the door, um, having not written them for over two decades. Um I mean, that's uh that's an art in itself, you know. Credit to anyone that can do it all easily, but it took me ages to figure out how to do it again, you know?

SPEAKER_01 1:00:10

That's awesome. Well, David, I just want to say thank you for uh for coming out and speaking. And this next bit, uh I'm gonna let the folks listen to you when you during your speech in Parliament. And uh I want them to hear those four minutes. I think those are very impactful. And I think everything we've spoken about is synopsized in that four-minute speech. So let's let the listeners hear that.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:33

Good afternoon. The first item of business is time for reflection. And our time for reflection leader today is David Jarvis speaking SBC.

Family Pressure And Lowest Point

Speaking Work And Parliament Reflection

SPEAKER_03 1:00:49

Three years ago, I faced one of my biggest challenges, a medical discharge for the British Army. Multiple injuries, PTSD, and the life I'd known for over two decades gone. I was in a dark place mentally. A year later, thanks to an array of veterans' charities, I was heading for the Invictus Games. I had purpose again, direction. And the training wasn't just about sport, it was about recovery. Three months before the games, however, I became seriously ill. My body, which I thought I knew well, had suddenly become unpredictable. I lost over a quarter of my body weight inside two weeks. It turned out I was almost days from death, only days from death. The doctors diagnosed me with type 1 diabetes. I was recommended to consider quitting, to accept that the dream was over. It felt like the world was against me at every turn. But then I had an epiphany. If the challenges wouldn't stop, then I would need unwavering focus, which meant the target could no longer be about recovery. Because and the epiphany, the significance of the goal must match the scale of the challenge. So it was go big or stay at home, gold or nothing. You see, I needed that target to keep me focused because I was learning about this new life-threatening condition through trial and error. And let me tell you, it was mostly error. Over 40 blood tests a day, countless insulin injections, days when my blood glucose levels just crashed without reason or cause, leaving me shaking and struggling to stand, let alone train. Nights lying awake with anxiety and questioning my own sanity. When I arrived in Germany for the Invictus Games in the September of 2023, I'd learned enough to bring it all together. And I stood on that podium with a gold medal around my neck, not because the road got easier, but because I refused to step off it. Here's the thing resilience is not glamorous, it is not a motivational poster. It's showing up when quitting feels easier, stepping forward when the world pushes you back. I learned through my challenges an important truth. The world does not get easier. I have to get better at dealing with it. I could have relied more on doctors, on my teammates, my coaches, I could have relied more on my family. I, we could delegate, can delegate responsibility. But accountability is where the buck stops. And in my case, it had set up residence in the form of type 1 diabetes. I know I wasn't responsible for my diagnosis, but I am accountable for how I respond to it. I'm not responsible for every single mistake, but I am accountable for applying every lesson learned. My accountability is important because the challenges will just keep coming. There is no respite. Every day is still a school day. The world can still feel relentless. But my focus remains resolute. Your adversity may be very different from mine. But remember, you don't need perfect conditions to achieve something extraordinary. You just need the courage to be accountable by owning the outcome regardless of circumstances. Because resilience is not about avoiding the storm. It's about pushing through despite the challenges, and you will come out a winner on the other side. Thank you.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:32

So again, David, I just want to say thank you for coming out. Thank you for sharing your story. Thank you for being open, honest, and vulnerable with us. Um those are things that are so hard to find, especially in a military man and a type A personality. So thank you so much. Ladies and gentlemen, hope you guys enjoyed this show. Come back next week and we are going to touch, we're going to talk to David again. We're going to talk about the military background, the transition from military into a civilian world, the impact that can have, and how it's such a resonating story amongst all of us as we kind of move through different phases of our life. Ladies and gentlemen, we love you so much. Thank you, thank you, thank you. That is a Murdered to Music Podcast.