 Personality profile


people died, and in 2002, he dealt with the Potters Bar rail crash when seven lives were lost.


During this time, David was also


involved in preparations for dealing with a terrorist attack, which were rolled out after the London bombings in July, 2005. “We did have training for the bombings every year I was there, he said. “It had been well planned for and it did happen after I left.”


While a seasoned broadcaster,


Rotary Children’s Hospice Holidays


Founded seven years ago, the charity organises and funds magical trips to Disneyland Paris for families of children who are cared for at the Demelza hospices at Sittingbourne and Eltham and at Ellenor Hospice, north Kent. Six families – two from each venue –


are selected each year by the hospices for the four-day holidays which provide respite for parents and siblings as well as helping to create lifelong memories. The visits are supported by Medway and Sidcup Rotary as well as Sunlight Rotary, a breakfast club in Medway. Fundraising goes on throughout the year for the £20,000 needed for the visit and main events include an annual beer and cider festival and a Christmas Santa fun run through the streets of historic Rochester. Eight Rotarians, who pay towards their own travel, accompany the families, along with a nurse and care assistant from each hospice. So far, 49


life-limited children and their families, who otherwise might not have been able to go on holiday, have benefited from this unique scheme. Medway Rotary Club is keen to


recruit new members. To find out how to join Rotary or


make a donation or help with fundraising, visit www.medwayrotary.org.uk


8 Mid Kent Living


something he wasn’t prepared for was a hilarious sequence on the Ali G show


caught out,” he says.


Nowadays, he devotes most of his time to his volunteer work for two charities, helping to provide family holidays for hospice children through the Rotary organization, and as an ambassador and response team member for ShelterBox.


A keen member of Medway Rotary


since 1990, David joined because the club uniquely ran a scheme called Handicamp, providing holidays for disabled children. The idea inspired the development of holidays at Disneyland Paris for families of


“I thought I had experienced disaster and mass death after Zeebrugge and Paddington, but it pales into insignificance compared with what Mother Nature can do.’


when David thought he was there to warn about dangerous weapons. He was clearly gobsmacked when he was ambushed by the comic character who asked where he could buy a selection of murderous blades.


“I was going to America the next day and I went off thinking ‘I don’t know what they’re going to do with that’.” He found out six months later, when the show was aired for the first time as he was attending an anti-terrorism conference. Much to his embarrassment, the delegates, including top police officers, doctors and coroners, all sat down to watch it.


Since finally hanging up his police


uniform in 2004, David has built up his own business, Promise Development UK, specialising in coaching and training people in leadership, media and communications skills and emergency planning training. “I now use the Ali G tape to show people how not to get


children from local hospices. The visits are organized and led by David and fellow Rotarians and include parties and treats as well as a sightseeing tour for parents with a boat trip on the Seine. There’s also entertainment from “Dave The Clown” and “Alf the Orangutang. “I dress up as a clown and so does a colleague, and we do some magic tricks and silly jokes for the kids,” says David, who recently returned from this year’s visit.


After the trip each family is given an album with photographs of all their memorable moments during the holiday.


It was also through Rotary that


David became a ShelterBox volunteer. Following the Asian tsunami in 2004, the Medway club raised £60,000 for the relief effort and David and other members went to Sri Lanka to help with the work. It was there that he first saw ShelterBox in action and decided to get involved.


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