Dwaynes Story
Born in Jamaica, Dwayne came to the UK at the age of six. His formative years in the UK were in inner city London and wrapped up in social stigma, he became a victim of both knife and gun crime. After a life threatening incident Dwayne made the decision to change his life… forever.
As a child in wild Jamaica, Dwayne loved nature and wildlife and wanted to reconnect to his early life in the forests and hilltops of Jamaica where he was born.
So in 2010, Dwayne set himself his first of many challenges, becoming the first black Briton to walk over 400 nautical miles to the magnetic North Pole. On his return he was invited to Buckingham Palace by none other than the Queen, joining other polar explorers and adventurers at a reception to mark the centenary of Scott’s expedition to the South Pole.
Since then his life has become richer, living a life of adventure and exploration, Inspiring young people nationwide to explore the ‘great outdoors’ – wherever that may be.
As a consequence Dwayne has been awarded the City of London’s highest honour, The Freedom of the City of London’ by the Lord Mayor for his work with young people, a passion which he continues to this day with plans of taking groups of disadvantaged young people from across the UK on life changing expeditions under the banner of the WeTwo Foundation (a charity he along with his expedition teammate Phoebe Smith started in 2019) with the inaugural expedition planned to set sail for Antarctica in 2022 in what will be the world’s first carbon negative expedition of its kind.
He has been interviewed about his exploits on all media including the ‘Daily Politics Show’ BBC’s One Show, BBC breakfast, Countryfile, The Guardian, Telegraph and many more. Dwayne has also spoken about his personal goal which is to engage innercity youth (in particular) with the UK countryside and the outdoors more generally while encouraging carbon conscious/reducing behaviours. Hence the moto ”it’s about planting seeds not flags”.
As a naturalist Dwayne also appeared as a special guest on BBC’s ‘SpringWatch Unsprung’ with Chris Packham, where he explored the wonders of the Great British Countryside. His drive to engage and enthuse a new generation with our natural spaces, the climate challenges we face and adventure have all lead to Dwayne working on a variety of projects with some house-hold names such as Will Smith, Bear Grylls, Ellie Simons, Tim Peak to name a few.