After Dinner Speakers: Ffyona Campbell, Shane Richie, Jimmy Carter

Ffyona Campbell was born in Totnes, South Devon, in 1967 into a family with a strong Royal Naval tradition. Before leaving home at 16, she moved house 24 times and was educated at 15 schools. In August 1983 at the age of 16 Ffyona Campbell set out from John O'Groats, beginning a walk that was to take her around the world. Eleven years and 20,000 miles were to elapse before she returned to her starting point. Her rootless childhood with its unformed relationships forced her to do her growing-up out on the road. Accompanied by one or two-man support teams, except in Europe where she travelled alone, she learned about courage, humility, friendship and trust. It was a troubled rite of passage as she endured incredible hardships, overcoming pain, injury and disease, crossing minefield and war-zones and surviving encounters with bandits, would-be rapists, rogue lions and Public Relations Executives. . After completing her epic journey Ffyona wrote ‘The Whole Story’, the story of her extraordinary life. Despite the incredible achievement of her 11-year journey Ffyona then asked to be removed from the Guinness book of Records due to the fact that she wanted to admit to the world that she had accepted a lift from her support team during one leg of the journey across America. The sense of guilt she felt along with isolation and black depression at one point led her to contemplate suicide. Yet she battled back from that lowest of low points and, deep in the African bush, with tribal people, she found the happiness and inner peace that had eluded her elsewhere. Ffyona’s incredible story leaves audiences feeling truly enriched and inspired to overcome adversity and achieve personal goals.