Kevin James is a veteran who helps other veterans and civilians rid themselves of their crippling PTSD symptoms by taking them scuba diving in Deans Blue Hole in The Bahamas. This groundbreaking programme has so far enjoyed a 100% success rate.
"Just after my birth I had to deal with the first of my many challenges in life - and that was survival. Meningitis hit me hard in hospital a day or so after arriving in this world and it cost me an eye. My optometrist describes the retina as a lunar war zone. I can see fuzzy bits and pieces out of it but not much more.
On we go with my second challenge, 3 older sisters! They thought their tough looking younger brother should be walking at 6 months. My legs started to bow and needed to be broken every year, put in Plaster of Paris with a bar between the knees until I was 5. A big hole had to be cut in the end of my pram.
As a youngster I found out that every kick about with a soccer ball needed a goalkeeper so I discovered a purpose and loved that there was a value to my young life.
It was the only thing that I cared about growing up, keeping the ball out of the net - or in those days don’t let it pass between the two coats or sweaters dropped down as goalposts.
Years went by and my only thought was professional goalkeeping at the highest level. Really easy to shine as a schoolboy with one eye, but not so easy as an adult when the game gets so much quicker. So we arrive at my first “knock back” which meant I had no purpose in life anymore after a dozen top class soccer teams said “Thanks, but no thanks.”
It’s amazing how if you keep your eyes and ears open and your antenna up, a new purpose in life might just come knocking. I had to stay in on New Year’s Eve 1976 because there was absolutely nothing to do in my small town. There was no way that was ever going to happen again. Early in the new year I went straight to the Army recruiting office and found my new purpose in life, to be the best Military Policeman I could and as a very good goalkeeper find friends in lofty sporting places.
Having a solid purpose in life made me very happy and helping others was great fun. Whether it was clearing a bar full of drunk soldiers for the owner, giving ‘no taxi money’ soldiers a ride back to their barracks and the cherry on top as a dog handler, caring for Lancer, a great dog who hated drunks.
Having been sent back to the Military Police recruit centre as a trainee Physical Training Instructor a brand new reason to enjoy life sprang up. The world of Physical Training in the Army is a simple one, stay with your parent Regiment or specialise and complete a one year course, transferring to the Army Physical Training Corps after promotion, oh yeah!
Now as you can imagine the world is now my lobster, oops sorry oyster. So many opportunities opened up. I could go down a hundred different roads depending on what sport or recreation I wanted to become an expert in, all at the expense of the Military, yummy! At this juncture I was still playing football at a high level representing the Army and Combined services. We completed a tour of Bermuda where I first experienced scuba diving in a swimming pool at a resort there.
The seed had now been planted for arguably “the” purpose for my life … Scuba Diving. I carried on teaching sports and supervising fitness for soldiers, then all of the Physical Training Instructors in Germany were sent to Norway for the annual boozy get together, sorry official refresher course. The powers that be said “Right you lot, you have to do an outward bound sport you have never tried before.” I said scuba diving which - apart from blowing a few bubbles in a pool - I had never experienced.
Off we go to a local fiord. Although it was August the water was not exactly toasty warm. They kitted us out for canoeing as there was no thermal dive gear available, deep joy. Anyway, 9 dives later, the last one to 18 metres or 60 feet, I was absolutely hooked. Now the spooky side of purposes in my life. I roll up to my next posting a couple of miles from Stonehenge and the commanding officer says, “I don’t suppose you have ever scuba dived, have you?”
After qualifying over the next few years, leaving the Army and finding a scuba diving job, I met an unbelievably rich bloke who'd bought a big private island and needed a manager. Semi-retiring to a very quiet part of The Bahamas next to Deans Blue Hole (663 ft 202 m deep), my previously ordained purpose in life started to become very clear.
After discovering that scuba diving to depths (according to a Johns Hopkins Study) of 60ft or 18m can improve PTSD symptoms by a minimum of 85%. I decided I had the perfect set up to offer just that to all and sundry in the terrible world of crippling PTSD.
Now the sad bit, for 9 years I sent out hundreds of contact messages to every charity, celebrity and PTSD orientated organisation I could think of. I got absolutely no interest in me offering gratis, totally free of charge, the opportunity to give this proven study a go!
I have always lived my life in the following manner; help me, follow along with me, but if you selected neither then get out of my way. So this “knock back” was not going to be allowed to stand. I posted a ‘full on’ rant on a Facebook Veterans page, moaning that no one out there had any interest in my ‘gratis of charge’ offer. Jim’s wife (who now runs our charity) contacted me and said they were coming out, willing to pay their own way, so we now had diver A.
After they arrived we decided that if 60ft - 18m - deep for a week helps with 85% of symptoms, doubling both might improve on that number. Lo and behold after about three or four days Jim had a very emotional episode where he felt the equivalent of a black cloud leave his brain and he no longer felt the crippling symptoms of PTSD.
This has continued for 16 more sufferers and during that time (over 6 years now), even though they have to be on the lookout for any resurfacing of potential symptoms, none of them has experienced any more crippling PTSD.
We have a 100% record of sending people home (17 now) PTSD symptom free. Three American ladies have rid themselves of their serious sexual assault and domestic violence PTSD by diving (during COVID, it was not possible to bring over Veterans).
Steve Rigby from Derby is a great success story, and is now a motivational speaker. He is mobile even though in a wheelchair.
Steve had broken his neck really high up on the spine and subsequently has to endure his life in a wheelchair. You may have read about him when he and his wife took on the Catholic Church because the local priest refused to marry them in the local church. They won the fight after involving the Pope.
I lost touch with Steve over the years and tried to find him on the net periodically whenever I thought of him (which was often) with no luck. I managed to get back in touch and visited him while in the UK on a family trip. During conversation he said how disappointed he was that his 50th birthday plan of going to the tropics was scuppered when his carer got pregnant and couldn't go. Unbelievably no one else wanted to.
I was managing the private island at the time so I invited him to come and offered to be his carer if needed, but he eventually found one.
He was not sure whether he could manage "this or that" in terms of getting to me and I had to constantly tell him to just go for it, what's the worst could happen, he has an accident and ends up in a wheelchair, again? So he arrived on the island looking forward to a lazy time sitting in his wheelchair reading, eating, drinking red wine and imitating a lazy person.
When I asked if he went to his local pool to swim at home he said no. So I tipped him out of his chair into the sea, put a "noodle" float behind his back and one behind his neck and he took his first unaided exercise for 30 years. It was a very powerful sight seeing Steve doing the back stroke around the bay.
At this point I had a bit of a brainwave, so I shot off and got a mask and snorkel, flipped him over and dragged him to the dock where all the little tropical fish were. To say he loved it would be without doubt the largest understatement ever uttered.
I then decided if he can snorkel, he can dive, "how am I going to get back in the boat?" says he. I replied that I didn't really care because 'scuba diving' was the plan not “climbing in boats.” Seriously, we worked out a way to carefully get him back in the boat but if that had not been possible I would have found a site near a beach, and we would be back to him taking exercise.
So, off we went to a very shallow site with the most coral and fish I could find. I put an extra long hose on my gear (7 feet) and carefully steered Steve around the reef.
Once again he thought this was something he would never be able to do. We slowly built up the depth over a few dives, culminating in a 30 ft dive on Jeep Reef which is a world class shallow coral and fish dive.
So a lesson learnt for anyone out there who thinks their life is over after an accident or a challenge based on injury or circumstance, firstly it's not over and secondly if you think it is refer to the "firstly" bit above. Steve subsequently wrote a book called "Tears in the Sand" based on his time in the tropics, the title is based on his experience of me dumping him on a sand bar in the middle of the ocean and leaving him there to his thoughts for an hour or so.”
In summary, at the time you never know if something is your purpose in life. However, it just might be, so go with the flow, always imagining that something you are enjoying might just morph into something you can firstly run with then sprint off as your purpose in life.
Always remember, “ Today is one of the good old days, you just don’t know it yet!”
Follow your Dreams…. I did!"
