Renegade Issue 35

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1999 ,After spending 15 years surviving the streets of
LA, Miami, NYC, Chicago, I was pulled over in Atlanta
GA USA , and charged 2 counts of possession of cocaine
and was sentenced to 5 years in a super max federal
prison.
While locked up in my cell for 23 hrs a day, I decided
when I got deported back here to Canada I would join the
other team, and become a Fireman, or a Medic and start
a family and try to give back to society for all that I have
taken from it over the years supporting my endless drug
habit and committing unspeakable crimes.
2002. I did just just that, and spent the next 7 years as a
POC Firefighter, a volunteer forest fire fighter, a volunteer
ski patroller and I was also a Emergency Medical Re-
sponder full time at the Whistler Sliding Centre where we
would host the Vancouver 201 Winter Olympics in 2010.
2010 - Opening day of the games, a Luge Athlete by the
name of Nodar Kumaritashvilli, had slid out of the track
clocking over 153 kph, and hit a steel post approximately
100 feet away from me.
I was the First responder to the Nodar, and worked franti-
cally to save his life for over 1 hour before we prenouced
him dead.
The games had to go on the next day and seemed as
though the entire world had just brushed this death under
the rug like nothing had happened.
Over the next 2 weeks, things got a lot worse in my head
and heart, battling endlessly with over whelming amount
of guilt, shame, stress, anxiety, depression = PTSD
1 hour after the games were over, I tried to commit sui-
cide.
Unsuccessful, Over the next 5 years of suffering, I had
lost all my all my positions as a First Responder, I lost all
my Friend and I had lost my family of 13 years.
Last year, I found myself living in the downtown East side
of Vancouver, after many years of never getting even so
much as a bandaid for my PTSD, which i was only made
aware of this thing they called PTSD after being fired
from my job at the track for “ acting strange and abusing
all the drugs that the doctors had me on.
After i few weeks , i had given up all hope, and found myself on
the Lions Gate Bridge , ready to jump 111 meters to my death.
Something spiritually got me off the bridge and took me up into
the backcountry mountains of British Columbia where I found
mother nature healed me with her peace and simplicity.
Within, 3 months , I had raised 82, 000 dollars worth of spon-
sorship and started a camp for others who are suffering with
PTSD - non profit
Camp My Way
Camp My Way is for Emergency Service Providers who suffer
from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). It’s a place to get
away from all the daily distractions and ...
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After the camp as done last summer, I wanted to spend the
rest of my life trying to help raise awareness to PTSD , so I
started a program called Breaking the Chains BC.
To get the attention of the people , I choose to flip a 400 pound
tractor tire across 7 mountains 30 kms in 30 days while wear-
ing over 50 pounds of solid steel chains, all in memory of No-
dar Kumaritashvilli, the Olympic Luge athlete who had died in
my hands 6 years earlier.
Now , after speaking with a good friend of mine Charlie Ren-
egade, He has offered me to do a PTSA Live to air every week
on his radio station. I will be introducing myself LIVE TO AIR ,
this coming Friday, July 22nd at 10 30 am , from the Together
We Can Recovery Center in Vancouver BC. We will also be
LIVE to air the following day Saturday July 23rd at 2 pm PST
while we are hosting a PTSD awareness program in English
Bay around the Sea wall for 2 days .
In memory of Nodar Kumaritashvilli, and the over 100 Cana-
dian First Responders who have died by suicide in the last 2
years.
for further information -
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