Sixth Form students learnt on Thursday afternoon that there could no longer be a valid excuse for late homework other than near death – and perhaps not even that – after listening to the extraordinary story of Stuart Boreham and the obstacles he has overcome.
When Stuart was 20 months old he had not yet taken a single step. His parents took him to doctors to find out what was wrong. The doctors wrote in his medical records: 'Stuart refuses to walk'.
In fact, Stuart wasn't refusing to walk; he couldn't. He has cerebral palsy, a condition where messages from the brain do not communicate properly with muscles in, for instance, the legs.
As an adult, Stuart watched a Norwegian orthopaedic surgeon land at the end of a long-distance rowing race, and said, aloud: 'I think I'll row across an ocean.' The surgeon listened to his story, and to the details of his disability, and said, 'Forget it, you'll never manage.'
The fact that Stuart overcame not just these but other numerous difficulties and obstacles in his way, to achieve the extraordinary things he has, is an inspiration in itself. In a very understated way he told our lower sixth students about the hardships he faced as he rowed solo, unassisted and unsupported across the Atlantic Ocean – the first ever disabled person to row solo across an ocean.
Five and a half weeks without seeing a single sign of human life, five days and nights of tempestuous weather, and lips so blistered from the sun he had to wake himself every 10 minutes to smear vaseline on them to prevent their sticking together: none of this was enough to make Stuart give up.
One of Stuart's many mottos in life is: 'When an opportunity comes up, grab it; it may not come again.' We are glad to have grabbed the opportunity to hear Stuart come to speak, and hope he inspired our students to grab whatever opportunities come their way – including the opportunity to get their homework in on time!
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