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Surviving Adventure™ - The Instructors

What makes us different from other courses on the market is that the instructional faculty includes highly experienced doctors, paramedics and expedition medics - all current and highly respected in their field. 

Dr Malcolm Russell - Course Director

Actively practicing pre-hospital immediate care for over ten years, Dr Russell has served most of his career as a doctor in the British Army working extensively with some of the UK's most elite military units. As a civilian Dr Russell has worked with several ambulance services including the London Helicopter Emergency Medical Service and has been involved in training paramedics and emergency care practitioners.  He has planned and managed medical support to various expeditions including to Mt McKinley (Denali) 2004, and the Army Everest West Ridge expedition, 2006. Last year, Dr Russell provided medical support to the Land Rover GO60 Expedition from UK to Singapore (you can read more about his trip on the Blog page). This year he climbed Kilimanjaro via the beautiful Lemosho route.  Although on a different scale to Denali or Everest, this was the first of the seven summits that Malcolm has successfully climbed (previously being hampered by frostbite and avalanche conditions on the other two).  His expedition was uneventful from a medical perspective and the stunning view from the 'roof of Africa' was a great finale to a spectacular trek.

Mr Andrew Purdie

Andy is an experienced state registered paramedic with particular expertise in Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear Medicine where he helped develop new procedures for dealing with casualties in CBRN environments. He is recently retired from the British Army where he served for 21 years as a Combat Medical Technician with the Royal Army Medical Corps serving in a variety of operational theatres and environments, as well as working with UK Special Forces. In the past year, Andy has worked as a medic in Pakistan, Europe and extensively throughout Africa and was expedition medic on the recent Tiger Aspect Production 'Stephen Tompkinson's African Balloon Adventure' in the Serengeti, past Victoria Falls, and over the Okavango Delta before finishing on Namibia's Skeleton Coast.

Mr Andrew Hayles

Andy has worked as an NHS paramedic for the last seven years and he works part time on the Midland Air Ambulance.  He has travelled extensively throughout Europe, North America and South Africa.  Recently Andy travelled to Tanzania for some work experience, finding out how medicine is applied in a remote environment and the restrictions that are placed upon them by transport links, hospital facilities etc.  His experience has emphasised the importance of being self reliant, not to mention the requirement for a good evacuation plan if it all goes wrong. 

Mr Tom Davies

Tom is an experienced Paramedic, who has worked for West Midlands Ambulance Service and Midland Air Ambulance for the last five years.  He is a keen sportsman and played professional rugby for London Scottish in the premiership in 1999. Tom also has a BSc in Sports Science and worked as a diving instructor in Australia and the Caribbean for 4 years.  He acted as Safety Diver for Tanya Streeter on her 153m world record dive in 2003, where he gained his experience of working in remote locations. More recently, Tom was selected as part of 12 man crew to attempt a world record to row from NY to Falmouth as team medic (funding dependent).