NORMAN CROUCHER OBE
Norman Croucher is a powerful motivational speaker who has proved that teamwork and persistence do indeed pay.
Despite having lost both his legs in a railway accident, he decided to seek adventure in the mountains - and he certainly found it.
Overcoming obvious physical barriers and other people's scepticism, he has climbed mountains all over the world and achieved his aim of joining the "Five Mile High" Club when he conquered Cho Oyu in Tibet - at 26,906 feet, the world's sixth highest mountain.
Now, whether you want an amusing lunchtime or evening talk or a strong motivational presentation, you can share in his experiences.
Norman is a former Man of the Year - on two separate occasions - and was made an OBE in 1977.
He even got a mention in the hit US TV series "Lost" where he was cited by Locke as an inspiration who had climbed Mt Everest. Not correct - but nice of them to mention him!
He has appeared on This Is Your Life and in 1979 was chosen from nominees from 121 countries as one of only three people to receive an International Award for Valour in Sport.
The mountaineer Sir Chris Bonington says of him: "There is no one like him. His extraordinary achievements have earned him a place in climbing history".
Norman's training for serious climbing began when he walked 900 miles from John O' Groats to Land's End, alone and often in pain.
He then climbed a score of mountains in the Alps, after which he led a very successful expedition to the Peruvian Andes where he climbed that country's highest mountain - Huascaran at 21,830 feet.
In 1981, he reached the top of his first Himalayan peak and in the same year, he seemed at first faced with disaster when his left artificial leg broke while climbing in Argentina, yet on one leg, he climbed a mountain of 16,801 feet!
"When my false leg broke as a result of metal fatigue, it could have been seen as a downer. Instead, I had the satisfaction of climbing 5,200 metres with just one leg. It prompted me to get a designer to make a better kind of leg for me when I got back down, so I learnt that setbacks can prove useful - and that's the most important point I try to get other people to understand", says Norman.
He also maintains that once you have set your goals and decided what it is you would like to do, then you must remain flexible.
"You can't do anything without having the courage to fail and every mountaineer fails at some point or other. I've given up ascents with frostbite, dysentery and bad weather: but you just try again".
In the 80's, he became one of only two Britons to have conquered Muztagh Ata (24,757 feet) in China where his companion became ill and snowblind and their descent in bad weather makes an interesting tale.
More recently, he has climbed Kilimanjaro; Cotopaxi in Ecuador; Mount Kenya and scores of other mountains all over the world.
In 1995, on his fourth attempt, he climbed the sixth highest mountain - Cho Oyu - scaling near vertical ice and surviving a night out at 26,000 feet without a sleeping bag or tent. He simply removed his legs and slid inside his large lightweight rucksack!
Norman has lectured to a wide variety of audiences of up to three and a half thousand people, all over the British Isles and in places as far apart as Denmark, Belgium, Monte Carlo, Nice, Guernsey and Kenya. Audiences have included Rotary, Women's Institutes, Townswomen’s Guilds, medical and literary societies, Gordonstoun School,I.C.I., Honeywell-Bull, Beecham Laboratories, Black and Decker, Rawlplug, I.B.M.,Ryder Truck Rentals, Carcare Plan, Manulife, Life Insurance Association conferences,Searle Laboratories, Wellcome Foundation, Alcan, Vauxhall, T.N.T. Overnite, Abbey Life, Sun Life of Canada, Barclays Unicorn Group, the Institute of Young Bankers, the Institute of Food Hygiene Technology, the Institute of Qualified Private Secretaries, and even the National Federation of Master Steeplejacks!
Comments received include: "We were absolutely enthralled. . . you had your audience spellbound. . . we were all delighted. . . an excellent evening, a marvellous experience for us all. . . O. B. E. stands for Our Best Ever!. . . interesting, imaginative and amusing, a great credit to you. . . such a splendid presentation. . . we so much enjoyed your sense of humour. . .100`% of our ladies can't wait for you to visit again. . . your talk was voted quite the finest and most popular. . . yours was only the second standing ovation in the history of the society. . . you were superb!"
His book "Legless But Smiling" is out now - ISBN 0-948385-34-0.
ARTICLE ON NORMAN CROUCHER OBE FROM THE SUNDAY TIMES...
Norman Croucher OBE always got an A for effort at school - but that was all he ever won. His talent for perseverance was vital, however, when, at 19, he was hit by a train and lost both his legs. Perversely, this spurred him on to take up mountaineering. Overcoming obvious physical barriers and - more to the point - other people's scepticism, he has climbed mountains all over the world- including the Andes.
Now 56 Croucher has spent a night alone at 26,OOOft with neither a tent nor oxygen. On one ascent, his left artificial leg snapped, but instead of giving in and finding himself stranded he kept going. When he isn't climbing, Croucher tells people how to keep their spirits up and go for their dreams.
"For a lot of people just getting up in the morning is a struggle but I believe liife is like a muscle; and if you don't stretch it, it will waste away, he says. "You can't do anything without having the courage to fail, and every mountaineer fails at some point or other. I've given up ascents with frostbite, dysentery and bad weather, but you just try again."
Croucher also helps demoralised former employees come to terms with redundancy and to find a positive way of dealing with the new flexibility in their lives. "When my false leg broke as a result of metal fatigue, it could have been seen as a downer. Instead, I had the satisfaction of climbing 5,200ft with just one leg.
The incident also prompted me to get a designer to make a better kind of leg for me when I got back down so I learnt that setbacks can prove useful, and that's the most important thing I try to get other people to understand."
Croucher maintains that once you have set your goals and decided what it is you would like to do, then you must remain flexible. He points out that each step towards your goal may take longer than you think and that unexpected circumstances will frequently make your task harder.
Undeterred, some of those he inspires to go for their own goals take him literally, taking up climbing or other sporting ambitions. With others, the effect is more intangible.
"We thought we were going to get some boring speech," says 13-year-old Denise Goodman a pupil at St Joseph's school in Horwich, Bolton, where Croucher recently gave a talk. "But seeing him with a rucksack on a mountain like that turned out to be really inspirational." Denise and fellow pupils sent Croucher a letter saying: "Not only did you save us from a boring PE lesson, you showed us it's not worth giving up even when things go wrong."
GULF NEWS - "Norman Croucher amazed and amused the audience at the Dubai Country Club with his stories of bravery and humorous anecdotes about life as a legless mountain climber".
"He is the funniest Motivational speaker" - Director Magazine