WORLD'S MOST DANGEROUS JOBS
Copyright Paula Reid, 2012
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Paula Reid is a motivational speaker and coach. She's a bit of a daredevil, having completed 94 things so far on her list of things to do before she dies, including sailing around the world, walking on hot coals, paddling the Mekong and the Thames, and diving with great white sharks. This is her third book.
CONTENTS
FOREWORD
Life is a great adventure, and a great gift and our job is to go for it, live it fully, with a smile and to follow our dreams. It ain't rocket science! I know Paula believes in living life to the full it is what has taken her around the globe.
Paula also understands that sometimes dreams require us to dig deep, to go that extra mile, to distinguish ourselves by our courage and actions. It is this 'extra' that makes the ordinary into the extraordinary; and she has found some extraordinary people for this book.
They have each, in their way, battled the odds that nature and even fellow humans throw at them, whether it's bombs, wildfires or the Southern Ocean. These people are special because they give 100 per cent commitment even when it hurts with their heart, mind, body and soul. They give total commitment to their most dangerous of professions. And life rewards commitment.
These people push to the limits; they live on the edge. And their actions have earned great respect, and in many cases, great gratitude by those on the receiving end of their courage and resilience.
The wildfire fighters, the RNLI lifeboat crews, the avalanche preventers, the international search and rescue... are all heroes and heroines, risking their lives to save ours.
The astronauts, volcanologists and storm chasers are pioneers and explorers, expanding our physical and intellectual boundaries.
The Superbike champions, F1 drivers and round-the-world sailors are extreme sports adventurers, pushing the limits of our physical capabilities.
To me, this book is an insightful and fascinating collection of extraordinary stories told by extraordinary people. And that can only ever be compelling.
Enjoy.
Bear Grylls
INTRODUCTION
I'm an ordinary girl from Sussex with an ordinary upbringing, but I've always believed in living life to the full, and in fulfilling this I have sailed 35,000 miles around the world, paddled the Mekong, kayaked the length of the Thames, run a marathon, walked across the UK, trekked the Inca Trail, lived with the headhunters of Borneo and the cannibals of Papua, walked on hot coals, crewed for the RNLI and mountaineered in Scotland and the Alps. I have bungeed, snowboarded, abseiled, dog sledded, zorbed, skydived, swum with great whites, bog snorkelled, flown over the Grand Canyon and kissed a dolphin
These adventures help me to feel alive and to know that when I am drawing my last breath, it will be with no regrets.
The inspiration for this book came when I found myself 10,800 feet up Mont Blanc roped to a professional assassin a trained sniper. He ended up divulging secrets to me that he'd never told anyone else. Once I comprehended the extremities of his profession and the intriguing details in his daily work, I was hooked.
I have always been fascinated by extreme living, extreme worlds, adventures and adventurers. I am drawn to people who, like me, push the limits and break the boundaries of convention or bend the rules of tradition by living life to the full. My life intertwines with these worlds and I am very privileged to know people who accomplish incredible feats and have awe-inspiring adventures in their personal and professional lives.
My original concept for a book was about extreme living: how people handle everyday tasks such as eating, sleeping and peeing in extreme circumstances or environments; I interviewed a lighthouse keeper, a prisoner of war, an Antarctic engineer, a beefeater and a Gurkha. I was interested in those who have to live in extreme environments because of their professions and how it affects their lives: what happens when a sniper wants to sneeze, for example? Snipers can't sneeze whilst on a job of course, because the noise would reveal their position.
The sniper I was roped to while mountaineering showed me his bullet wound scar on his non-firing arm, over a glass of wine in Chamonix. After a few more wines, he relaxed enough to tell me all about his job and confessed that he'd never told anyone so much. Killing people isn't the sort of conversation you have with your close friends and family when you get back from a tour of duty and it's certainly not an aspect of your work that your mum asks you about! But he was OK sharing the harsh reality of his job with a mountaineering buddy in a French bistro surrounded by glaciers and the towering peaks of the Alps, a place where death happens regularly. We'd broken through the etiquette of polite conversation by living dangerously together.
He was surprised that he shared his revelations so easily with me, but I think it was due to the heady mix of adrenaline (post climb) and alcohol. I was transfixed and asked him more and more probing questions. The stories he told were compelling. The details were surprising and fascinating beyond my imagination. I realised that many other people would be captivated by this sort of story, so the book was reborn as World's Most Dangerous Jobs.
My sniper unfortunately was reticent about being interviewed for the book and for his experiences to be perpetually caught in print. This led to a time-consuming and surreal challenge for me to find a sniper who was willing to go on record! I gradually realised that they live up to their profession and are hard to find and pin down. It's also not something one can easily advertise, though I did send out a few emails with the header: 'I need a sniper'. I kept waiting for the online police to swoop, especially when I started to research types of sniper rifle, IEDs and covert operations for my undercover cop story.
