Speakers
Motivational speaker, Derek Derenalagi, has made an incredible journey from injured war hero (having lost his legs in an attack whilst serving in Afghanistan in 2007), to competing at the Paralympics in the Discus event and is currently training for the 2014 Paralympics in Rio.
Derek was an inspirational figure at the formation of the leading charity Help For Heroes and continues to mentor and act as Ambassador for them.
Derek has a truly motivational story that reaches a wide variety of both educational and corporate audiences with the key message of overcoming adversity and developing a positive outlook .
Derek gave a really excellent talk; it was right from the heart, very personal, he gave great detail of his injuries and how it happened, and the treatment and the battles he had getting better, the help he has received, and the love and support from Ana and his family; he then told us about how he had set his goal of representing Great Britain in the Paralympics and how proud he was to do that, and his on going sporting achievements.
“It was a fascinating and emotional story; and proved the point beyond all doubt that it is possible to make a positive out of a negative if you believe in yourself and are prepared to work at it. Very inspirational stuff. His delivery was excellent, he did not use notes, and I noticed that throughout there was total silence in the room as people listened to him. At the end he was given an instant standing ovation which has never happened at any of our events anywhere before. He then took questions and stayed to talk privately to people. It was an evening I will never forget and, I suspect, many others as well.” Neil McCorquodale, ABF Dinner 2013
