Royal Navy veteran fulfilled his daughter's last wish to start a dive school, became the world’s oldest divemaster at 95
Now he shares his story of how he was able to do it.
Since he was a kid, Harold loved the ocean and waters, and his love amplified when he served in WWII as a Royal Navy. Not just that, the love for ocean was inherited by his dear daughter, Hailey. Upon retirement, Harold and his daughter set out to dive the waters a lot together.
They want to enable people to feel the same joy they felt being underwater. So, they aim to become dive masters and start their own dive school together.
A drive to the coast that redirected his life
With a new dream to work towards, everything seemed well and good. Until a drive to the coast took a turn for the worse.
He was 72, with his daughter on the road for yet another diving trip, a huge truck lost control and crashed into them on the highway. That accident hurt Harold’s spinal cord so severely that he barely felt his legs and it took away his only daughter’s life.
He lost his family and friends in the war long ago, and now he lost his only daughter. On top of that, he also lost the mobility to do what he loves most: diving. All the grieves and losses sank him into a deep state of depression, but he made himself a promise…
“Diving was the one thing Hailey and I did most together after retirement. We aimed to become dive masters and start a dive school together. I must fulfill her last wish.” – Harold
Until then, he tried everything…
Multiple surgeries, physiotherapies, and medication…but NONE of them worked! He felt a lot of pain on his back whenever he tries to stand and walk, or just turning his body. At times, his back hurt so much he couldn't fall asleep.
One day he received a call. His diving buddy met an Australian acupuncturist, Dr. Gordan Patterson in his recent diving trip.
A dive buddy and a lifesaver turn things right-side up
Dr. Patterson was touched by Harold’s story about his daughter and their dream to save the ocean and had personally reached out to Harold to offer medical assistance. After giving Harold a thorough check, this is what he said:
“The back pains that you’re experiencing are actually NOT from your accident, they are the ordinary pains that come with age, affecting literally everyone around the world.”
“Think of your spine as the base of your favorite shoe, With every use, the base wears off slightly.”
“The base to the shoe is just as important as your back to your body, movement, and everyday life. Hence, it wears and tears much quicker than any part of your body.”
While everyone of us are subjected to back pains, we shouldn’t need to
Dr. Patterson believes he has found a solution to put an end to it. Being an acupuncturist for over 30 years now, he saw up to 42,000 cases of chronic back pains. And the number keeps going up as the age keeps lowering.
As the technology advances, our lives became much more convenient, we have everything at our fingertips: online shopping, food delivery, and all sorts of entertainment. People could just sit in front of their screens all day. Due to long hours of sitting and inactivity, even people as young as 25 years old suffer from back pain.
To combat that, Dr. Patterson used his acupunctural and acupressure knowledge and created a special mat that has around 8,000 pins to sleep on comfortably. They are placed strategically to stimulate the pressure points all around your back, improving blood flow by increasing the circulation throughout the entire body and releasing endorphins that naturally reduce aches and tension while promoting complete restoration throughout the body.
He named it the AcuMaster™ Mat
He sends the mat to Harold few days later, and it was immediately put to use. Harold lies on the mat 30 minutes a day, every day.
In just a few days, his back felt much better than it was before. Few weeks later, his legs gained strength, he started walking and swimming. He admitted that his insomnia had reduced significantly, he could sleep so much better after using it.
Both his diving buddy and Dr. Patterson was amazed by his recovery. His MRI scans and body checkup results showed that he was clear to get back to diving.
He got the green light to get back to diving!
Immediately, he enrolled in a divemaster course and was the oldest certified divemaster. Now, he successfully started a dive school named after his daughter.
“Having this diving school named after her, it’s like she’s still by my side. When people mention about our diving school. It’s like she was never gone, and people still remembers her. Whenever I lead a group to dive into the waters, it reminds me so much of the good times diving with Hailey.”
“I consider myself the lucky one to survive the war and the crash, but it’s my family and friends who didn’t come back that this sort of time reminds me of. I just wish I found this earlier, missing them would have been so much easier.” – Harold
Since Harold’s story went viral, more and more people are using this amazing mat to relieve body aches, pains and stress. The supplies are having difficulty meeting the sudden surge in demand.
Get your own AcuMaster™ Mat online now. Don’t let chronic back pains, rob you of your favorite activities.