Let’s address the elephant in the room. OK, maybe it’s not as big as an elephant – but it’s probably bigger than a guinea pig….a tapier?! Let’s address the tapier in the room!
In 2018 Billy Taylor and Alex Mason set up the wonderful Monkey Fist Adventures. I joined them a short while later. We did some brilliant things and I loved everything about it. Alex and Billy are just the best, most supportive people in the world. They’re insanely talented, and most importantly they live and breath adventure.
Last year we decided to set up an ocean rowing regatta across the Atlantic called the ‘Atlantic Dash’ – it will move away from the classic format of a race and increase focus on living in the moment, being present and enjoying the adventure to it’s most full. It was something I was very excited about!
However, my mental health had taken a steady decline over a period of time and it came to a point when I finally realised the importance of looking after my brain. Running a race successfully and safely is a very complicated beast. Whilst I know that I could have brought a great deal to that race, my stress levels were through the roof before this race had even begun.
At Monkey Fist we did so much, and there was lots of things on the horizon. There still is. I got to the stage where I wanted to have less noise in my brain, and to do that I felt I needed to choose one thing and just focus purely on that.
So, I made the very difficult decision to leave Monkey Fist Adventures, so that I could put all of my focus on just one thing. That one thing is something that really makes me very happy in life; supporting adventurers by telling their amazing story to the public. My goal is to be the best in the world at it.
Billy, Alex and I – we’re still great friends. I think perhaps there was raised eyebrows from the adventure community over whether we’d all fallen out or whether there was disagreements – but my leaving was not due to any issues within the company or between ourselves – it was purely a decision on my behalf to keep my brain happy and healthy. And because they’re such good friends, they supported my decision completely. ☺
To check out what that amazing pair are up to now head over to www.monkeyfistadventures.com – also check out the regatta they are running, Atlantic Dash, at www.atlanticdash.com
