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Born in Portsmouth in 1974 Richard was a tumbleweed from the start - rolling via Brussels to the US as a youngster and
then via the Falklands across the southern UK as an adolescent. The strain of Public School, where he was sent to "toughen
up" would end up breaking him.
A drink fuelled life on a sailing ship in the US for his gap year taught him
the release of alcohol, and then when the GP complained his kidneys needed a rest at university in Southampton, so to recreational
drugs! Was it his genes, stress, or drug abuse that would enable him to turn his life around?
After a diagnosis
of paranoid schizophrenia and five years of support and treatment in Bristol, he went on to do an MA in Broadcast Journalism
at University College Falmouth. Finding that a media organisation disagreed with him his mental injuries were no worse than
his crushed leg at sea, and that the stigma of mental illness is extremely debilitating in society, he began campaigning with
Shift Speakers Bureau in 2007.
On our recent move to Weymouth Richard is now on the PR operation of the RNLI Lifeboat. This
way he can combine his skills and experience as a seafarer with his trades of print journalism and media.
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