Sheldon supports unique expedition

A South East Coast Ambulance Service NHS Trust paramedic has taken part in a unique challenge which saw him support the first group of deaf people to reach the North Pole.

Clinical team leader based at Medway ambulance station, Sheldon Jury, trekked 70 miles across hostile wilderness with three deaf people, raising money for the National Deaf Children's Society.
Sheldon acted as one of three guides who supported the challenge. He took part in the trek following a request from the challenge organisers Polar Challenge International, which arranges such treks for charity.

This was the second time that Sheldon had travelled to the North Pole. In 2005 he went with a group raising funds for Kent Air Ambulance Trust. During that trek he claimed a world record by performing extreme ironing at the most northerly point on earth.

Sheldon said, "I jumped at the opportunity of going to the North Pole again. It is such an experience and to be involved in a trek such as this was amazing and quite a challenge particularly when it came to communicating with the group.

"We all had to learn sign language but it proved very difficult to use when we were walking in temperatures as low as -35 degrees so we had to make up our own type of sign language for things like 'don't follow my tracks' and 'Don't fall into the water'.

"We also had to make sure that if we did speak that we pulled down our balaclavas and spoke directly, face to face so that they could lip read."