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DEF to sponsor Bridges Youth Mentoring Project

Local authority budgets for youth services have been slashed and many vulnerable youngsters risk falling into poverty and/or homelessness. This year we are pleased to announce our support for the fantastic Bridges Mentoring Scheme ran by Guildford Diocese, who support such youngsters.

DEF donates ‘exotic’ instrument to Godalming College

With funds raised from our yearly spring benefit concert, performed by Godalming College students themselves, were able purchase and donate a marimba to the college music department. The marimba is an exotic percussion instrument used in Traditional Latin American and African music and it is the first time the college have had one.

Returning to the Amazon…

It’s difficult to describe the feelings building up to an experience so significant and poignant, one which you know will be unlike anything you ever have or ever will experience in your whole life. I arrived in Cali just five days before my trip back to the Amazon to revisit the exact spot where I had my diving accident 5 ½ years ago. The spinal cord injury I sustained there had life-changing consequences which I still live with today and which have taken my life down a completely different course. It’s impossible to underestimate how pivotal that moment was.

Dan’s blog for SCI Awareness Day

It wasn’t long before I felt at home in Colombia, as most visitors who spend time there do. It’s so easy to meet people and make friends and I embraced the lifestyle and culture in Cali which is famed as one of the world’s salsa capitals and for its vibrant nightlife. I was welcomed warmly into my new post and it wasn’t long before I started a course of salsa classes. Everything seemed well, I was in the prime of my life physically, leading an active, independent and comfortable expat lifestyle. All that changed during my Christmas holidays when a couple of friends and I decided to go to the Amazon jungle to embark on what promised to be an