I first got in touch with David Gordon in order to raise money for the 2008 Cranleigh Ecuador Expedition, a year and a half ago, but it was only recently that I found out that he was more than your average businessman.  Having no great experience as a camera man, he joined a team of Gurkhas attempting three challenges: fire, water and ice.  On their own, any one would be enough to qualify for a lifetime’s worth of Gold Duke of Edinburgh Awards but when you consider that these were done back to back, you begin to realise the true challenge that faced David and the Gurkha team; and all to raise money and awareness for the Gurkha Welfare Trust.

David was greeted by a capacity crowd in the MMS for the Lent Tom Avery Society Lecture, including many from outside the direct school community and over 30 members of the Prep School.

 The aim of the fire section was to do what could be described as the ‘Marathon des Sables on steroids’ in the tropical yet arid conditions of Ascension Island. To give you some idea of the task the ‘Marathon des Sables’ involves crossing 240km of desert and dunes in 7 days, the Gurkhas completed 252km in 6 days in temperatures approaching 40^oC, climbing an average of 1046m per day, carrying all their equipment apart from water and tents and moving at an average of almost 5km per hour.  Again this alone would be a marathon task (or more accurately six marathons) but only 44 hours later they were in England canoeing 257km in five days. This involved extra distance from Avonmouth to Devizes before entering the renowned international Devizes to Westminster Canoe Race.  Although not racing competitively they did complete 111 portages and a huge distance which should not be underestimated.

The talk closed at the same point where David’s involvement with the school began: his active-wear clothing company. His company sells clothing that is made from bamboo fibres, the new sustainable, green ‘it’ textile when it comes to fitness and outdoor clothing.  It is currently being trialled by the SAS, the US army and more importantly the Cranleigh Sevens rugby team.  The benefits are too numerous to list here but think along the lines of smell-resistant, wicking and cashmere soft; if you want to find out more then go to www.bambooclothing.co.uk 

As I said at the start, David is helping to raise money for the school’s expedition to Ecuador, by donating money from the sales of the clothing.  However it will only register if you enter the code ‘Cranleigh’ in the group buying code box at the checkout of David’s site: www.bambooclothing.co.uk. The result will be that 50% goes to the Ecuador expedition group fund.