Page 3 - Rotary DIN Apr 2016
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CONFERENCE OVERVIEW                                            him giving a thumbs-up for the camera. Ben got a
                                                               standing ovation for being “the boy next door”
Inspiration by the sea                                         enthused with living life to the full and believing in
                                                               yourself.
By Bruce de Saram
                                                               Other wonderful speakers in the morning included
The highlight for me of this year’s inaugural                  Medic Malawi, a Rotarian who made the bricks to
conference of District 1175 in Torquay was Ben                 build his own hospital and kit it out, a beekeeper
McBean (picture below), an ex-Royal Marine, who                who made us all realise how important to our
was the last speaker before lunch on the                       lives bees are, medical detection dogs, and an
Saturday. Ben, quite a character and a great                   artist who had made such wonderful paintings of
motivational speaker, stepped on an Improvised                 Africa in two different styles and had donated one
Explosive Device in Afghanistan and lost a leg and             to be auctioned in aid of the District Governor’s
an arm. His life-threatening injuries are a thing of           three charities.
the past, although he does still have to undergo
further surgery, but he demonstrated the two                   Saturday afternoon was the final of Junior Youth
prostheses he uses and he had a large bag of                   Speaks, which was won by a Cornish school called
examples of mechanical aids to show, all with                  Penpools. They had just the right mix of
different purposes or which had become obsolete                seriousness and humour and deservedly won.
as technology advanced.
                                                               Sister Frances’ tales of how she set up the wold’s
                              His message was that we all      first hospice for children – Helen House – and
                              needed challenges, mental        since then the young people’s hospice Douglas
                              and physical, and although we    House, were humbling. She was followed by MP
                              may be or feel we might be at    Jeremy Le Froy, who chairs the All Party Group on
                              the bottom of the mountain,      Tanzania, malaria and neglected tropical diseases.
                              we could be on the up the up
                              again. This positive attitude    Also on Sunday were speeches from next year’s
                              probably save his life while he  District Governor Stephen Lay, who was telling us
                              was waiting to be rescued with   about next year’s conference in Newquay; and
other injured comrades. He showed a picture of                 RIBI Present Peter Davey.
the Emergency Room at Camp Bastion and all you
could see in the awfulness of that moment was                  More from Bruce at eltbjrdes@aol.com.
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