I have had a very rich life from the beginning ... but never realized it until later in life!

I was born in Ottawa, Ontario Canada March 10, 1955 and was the first child to Bernard and Rita. Dad was a city bus driver and Mom was a stay at home mother. Siblings started to populate our family very soon after my arrival and before long there were 9 of us kids; 8 boys and 1 girl. After a few years in the city we moved to the country to live on a farm ... as we needed more room with all these kids around, and more food to feed those hungry mouths!

Growing up in Almonte, Ontario (30 minutes from Ottawa - Canada's capital) was a wonderful experience as I had the close proximity of the hustle and bustle of city life, and lived in the laid back relaxed atmosphere of rural Ontario. On the farm I was exposed to the realities of planting/tending crops, raising poultry and cattle for our existence, and dealing with the challenges associated with being the oldest brother, and part-time enforcer. Dad now had to drive to the city to manage his bus route and 5 days a week was never present in the evening. Daily, from 5am until he left for the city, he managed the farm by mending fences, birthing calves, milking cows, feeding chickens, and all of the other TNTC (Too Numerous To Count) things that a farmer does! While Dad was not home I helped Mom to manage the upbringing of my siblings ... not an easy task, but all worked out well! I could go on and on with stories about how problematic it was to lend a hand in the raising of my siblings ... but I hesitate as they have grown to be much bigger than me and I can no longer wrestle them into submission as I did when we were younger!

During our 23 years together my wife Carol, and I, have traveled throughout 53 countries around the world. This love for travel and adventure was planted in me as a seed by my high school geography teacher, Mr. Souter. Something about the way he taught made me want to travel and see the world ... and that planted seed is still growing as I yearn for more travel and adventure. Another teacher at Almonte High School affected me deeply as she saw something in me that I never knew that I had! Mrs. Lamb was the guidance counselor and the teacher that put me on my career path to become a nurse. I will forever be thankful to her as my life as a nurse has been filled with the joys of the births of babies, the sadness of the deaths of family and friends, and the peace that comes with the opportunity to make a difference in peoples lives.

After graduation with my Diploma Nursing degree at St. Lawrence College in Brockville, Ontario I worked as an ambulance attendant for Ottawa Ambulance system. This job was a real education as I truly worked in life/death situations on a daily basis. I know that the lessons learned in this job were life changing and made me a much better person. After a few years of ambulance work I moved to Corpus Christi, Texas to join classmates at Memorial Medical Center, a Level One Trauma Center. This was my first real nursing job and I gained valuable experience in the areas of Medical-Surgical, Coronary Care, and the Emergency Room. The majority of my 10 years here was spent in the Emergency Room and it was here that I saw the pain of death, the cruelty of child abuse, the inequities of our biased healthcare system, but most importantly the love and caring of my colleagues. It was also here that I made friends for life and fondly reflect on the camraderie of poolside parties, beach outings, and living it big in South Texas! It was during this time that I met the love of my life, my soulmate, and best friend Carol  :>)

My next move was to Columbia, SC where I gave up the trauma of the Emergency Room for the trauma of the Operating Room. Now I got to help repair those "wounded warriors" that got hurt while playing sports, or accidently injured in car accidents, falls, or worse. Here I functioned as a staff nurse, assistant nurse manager, and then educator. My experiences here lead me to become involved in my professional organization, Association of periOperative Registered Nurses (AORN) at the local, state and national levels. One of my proudest moments was when the Board of Directors for AORN, of which I was a member, enacted a national campaign to prevent wrong site surgery. I would like to think that many lives were saved and much suffering prevented as a result of this campaign. I remember calling home that day and sharing my excitement with my mother.

After 10 years in the Operating Room and five years of Risk Management I transitioned to the University of South Carolina's College of Nursing. My present role is that of Clinical Assistant Professor and I teach community health as well as a class on the emerging issues in nursing. I really, really enjoy my job and enjoy helping students. It is very rewarding to know that you helped somone to increase their self esteem by seeing in them the potential that they did not know they had!

I have taken advantage of my "15 minutes of fame" as I complete the 7 Summits of the World to address an issue of which I am very passionate ... and that is the shortage of nursing and the imminent potential for patient injury as a result of this shortage. I am hopeful that the interviews, stories, and television broadcasts about my climb and my cause, will help the general public to have a better idea of the problems that could exist within our hospital

settings. The shortage of nurses is best explained as a dominoe type effect where potential nursing students are turned away from schools, due to the fact that there are not enough clinical sites for training, due to the fact

that there are not enough faculty, due to the fact that wages are very low. The issues are a little more complicated than this, but you can see that there are alot of factors contributing to the shortage ... which is inevitably going to affect patient care. Good nurses are being set up to make mistakes because we have some major challenges within our systems.

In recognition of these dilemnas, and others affecting nurses, I have worked with the University of South Carolina to develop the Summit Scholarship Fund for student nurses(www.sc.edu/nursing/SummitScholarship). My goal is to raise $1 for every foot of altitude of Mt. Everest and hope to raise $29,035.00. Can you imagine a world without nurses? Are you prepared to care for yourself and family members when hospitalized? I encourage evryone to donate to this most worthy cause as it is a major investment in your healthcare.

Enough about me, and for those that know me, I could go on and on and on ...

I look forward to learning more about each of you and sharing with all of you my dream to complete the 7 Summits of the World. 

I wanted to share with you a few photos of the vista from my home and to let you know that this is what I will be thinking of on those cold sleepless nights on the mountain!  We let too many sunsets get away from us ... I treasure them all.