Henry dared to dream, he dared to try the impossible and came so heartbreakingly close.
(By Rachel Hawkins, Our Rach Blogs) How many of you can honestly say you’ve had an ultimate dream or an idea and you’ve acted on it?
Perhaps you’ve dreamt about travelling the world and something has always held you back, perhaps fear or responsibilities. Or perhaps you decided you want a total career change that brought with it a number of risks and you decided the bad far outweighed the good.
I’ve had many an ultimate dream, I went through a bit of a quarter life crisis at the age of 25 and decided I either had to settle down and buy a house etc. or see the world a bit more. Unfortunately, I was nowhere near brave enough to pack up my life and set about travelling, to be honest, I don’t think I’m the type for it; although I would say I’m much more of a go-getter than I was a couple of years ago.
No go-getter, for me, comes bigger than Henry Worsley. A name, that I’ll be honest, wasn’t on my radar until earlier this week, for the most unfortunate of reasons.
Henry decided he wanted to do something that had never been achieved in the world. Pretty incredible in itself eh? What if I told you that his dream was to complete the first solo and unaided crossing of the Antarctic? Amazing, right?
Henry had previously made expeditions to the Antarctic leading a team of pioneers in fact However, he now wanted to do it alone, raising money for the Endeavour Fund set up for an incredibly worthwhile cause assisting injured servicemen and women. Prior to his Antarctic expeditions, Henry was a soldier in the British Army for over 30 years.
Amazingly he raised over £100,000 prior to setting off.
Henry dared to dream. He had something he was determined to achieve and set off with gusto in the hope he would become the first person to successfully undertake this challenge.
And what a challenge it would be. Henry covered over an incredible 900 miles in 69 days, in what would have been the most uncomfortable if not, unbearable conditions. With no one by his side.
As aforementioned, I hadn’t heard of Henry prior to this week. I was unaware of the incredible journey he was embarking on.
Sadly, Henry Worsley became a name I would be familiar with while watching the lunchtime news yesterday. 30 miles shy of the finish line, Henry had fallen ill, suffering from severe dehydration and exhaustion, he eventually radioed for help but unfortunately it was too late. He died on 24th January from bacterial peritonitis in a hospital in Chile.
I felt incredibly sad while watching the news feature announcing his death. Here was a man who had a dream he desperately wanted to make a reality, while raising money for an amazing cause. Henry dared to dream, he dared to try the impossible and came so heartbreakingly close.
I have the biggest amount of respect for Henry. You only live once and if I’ve taken something from Henry’s death it’s to do more and think less. If there’s something I want to do, no matter how big or small, I’m just going to forget the excuses my brain is trying to come up with and just bloody well do it. Just like Henry did when he dared to dream.
Here’s Henry’s page if you would like to make a donation in honour of the inspirational adventurer.
This Article was originally published on https://ourrachblogs.com/
