From Neuropsychologist to Ocean Rower

Hi, I'm Sarah Weldon, and in 198 days from now, myself and my team mate Susannah will set out to become the first female pair to row across the Pacific Ocean.
Our journey begins in Monterey Bay, California, rowing to Honolulu, Hawaii as part of the world first rowing race across the Pacific. From Hawaii, we continue alone and unsupported to Cairns, Australia. Crossing more than 1/3 of the planet using our own human power.
By the end of our journey, we'll have rowed over 8000 miles, taken more than 3 million oar strokes, and spent over 200 days together at sea, on our 23 foot boat 'Mr Toad'. In fact it was this lady Roz Savage who planted the idea of ocean rowing in my head, and I'm sure I'll be muttering extremeities at her during every moment of the row.
I first met Roz around 2008, up until which point, I thought that ocean rowers and adventurers were men, had beads, and looked more like this guy. But I was very inspired by Roz and meeting her left a big impression on me, though I had no idea that in 2013 I would take up rowing and be planning adventures of my own.
Up 2010, I pretty much conformed with society's expectations of me. I'd left school at 16, got myself a job as an outdoor pursuits instructor in the Lake District with young people who were disabled or disadvantaged. Took my first degree with the Open University, volunteered with mountain rescue, and went on to become a Neuropsychologist specialising in child development at the NHNN in London.
Materially I had everything I could have wanted, a pension, a mortgage, a good job, and during my two week annual vacation I'd go off on adventures all over the world. I spent 17 years in the NHS and Social Services, but it wasn't until I worked in the rural and urban slums of India that I had my life changing experience.
I had a bad reaction to a rabies vaccination, and ended up spending the next 18 months recovering from Guillain Barre paralysis and learning to walk. It was at this point that I realised I wasn't happy with my life, and that I had even scratched the surface of my bucket list. I wasn't sure what my next step would be, but I knew that there was more to life than this.
Flash forward to 2010 and I unexpectedly received an invitation from the President of Georgia, inviting me on an all expenses paid trip to Georgia, to help the country bring about educational reform and to introduce western standards to Georgia. I ignored the invitation for some time, but when the government wouldn't let it drop, I decided to give it a go for a few months.
By the end of 2012, I had fallen in love with Georgia, I'd been able to work with students from pre school to university, taught the newly recruited Police Officers, government ministers, Georgian military, and Georgian security officers and was all set to settle in Georgia.
During one of my lessons with a group of teenage 40 students I was told were unteachable, I decided that I wanted to find a way to connect with them. My classroom had no electricity, or books, but I did have my laptop and a copy of the BBC Oceans television series, so figuring that all kids love tv, I'd try and interact with them through that.
What happened next, blew me away. They went from being a loud group of uninterested students, to a group of young people, fighting to see the screen and to hear what was being said. They started asking each other questions, with the spokesperson asking me their questions in broken English. As a scuba diver, I took the ocean for granted, so it surprised me that some of them had never even seen the sea before, let alone what lay beneath the waves.
They had never heard of people like David Attenborough or Her Majesty the Queen of England, but they all knew about the adventures of aquanaut Jaques Cousteau, and were fascinated to see his grand son Philippe Coustau on the screen. We didn't finish watching the episode in class, so they asked to stay after school, and before long we were running a regular 'Oceans' club on Saturdays.
Over the next two years, we used Skype to talk with students all over the world, to talk with the presenters and scientists from the BBC Oceans series and live from the field, we introduced volunteering and the DofE Award to Georgia, receieved a letter from the Queen, and became a registered Georgian charity.
Each session, we would watch 20 mins of the BBC Oceans series, before breaking into small groups to research topics from the episode, and then presenting them to our peers. In the second half of the session we looked at expedition things, like team work, health, fitness, and rope work, and followed Roz Savage as she rowed across the Indian Ocean. By now we had students from across the city, from very different backgrounds.
Then towards the end of 2012, with the first democratic elections looming and human rights protests, life changed, putting me at risk as a government employee, and the students at risk in trying to get through the protests to our sessions. As a result, I trialled an online classroom, and was surprised to find that we now had students from over 53 countries signed up for our project, and interacting with our students.
And so myself, and our 10 project volunteers left Georgia, and over 2013, Oceans Project has evolved. We now have over 17,000 students on our project, we have a purpose built online classroom, and students can access our sessions 24/7, from their smart phones/from school, or from their laptop. And we will aim to undertake one expedition each year to raise funds, and to teach live from the boat.
Working with the TCT and Kaya Volunteer, we are providing education for the first time, to 68 children's projects, with young people sold into the sex trade, orphaned through HIV, or living on rubbish dumps. For every £500 we raise at sea, we can provide a children's project in the developing world with an ipad, charger, internet, with the goal of using education to help them lift themselves and their family out of poverty.
Students across the UK, also have free, access to our online platform, and can connect with students worldwide from the forum area. In March 2014 our boat and ourselves will be at Technopop London with 200,000 students from the UK, teaching STEM, geography, and TEFL through our online platform and Skype in the Classroom.
Its been an amazing year, with some incredible opportunities, not least, learning to row with Olympic Rower Debbie Flood, being given a regular slot in The Telegraph's Wonder Women section, being on the BBC, and getting to present to audiences about our environmental project. It has been a massive challenge personally, and physically, but in the process I found my calling and really do feel like I am at last making a real difference to the lives of others.

From Neuropsychologist to Ocean Rower

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