It wasn’t the failed try to kill him that compelled Dwayne Fields to flip his life round, however the expectation that he would search revenge. He was 21 and had pursued a stolen motorcycle to a housing property close to his residence in east London. After a confrontation, a person pointed a gun at Fields and fired twice. The gun jammed.
“Afterwards everybody was saying, ‘you want to get this man, we all know the place he’s’,” Fields, who’s now 37, tells me. “It was the similar stress that had acquired me into that scenario and I assumed, ‘I can’t do it anymore, as a result of I’ll find yourself lifeless or in jail’.”
Instead, Fields ended up in the Arctic. In 2010, he grew to become the first black Briton to stroll virtually 400 miles to the magnetic North Pole. He is now an adventurer and campaigner for variety in an business that’s nonetheless dominated by privileged white males.
I discuss to Fields about his outstanding journey, and the way he managed to change course so dramatically, in the week he’s saying his subsequent expedition. In February, he’ll set sail for Antarctica.
He will not be pursuing a document — there will probably be no first ascent or daring crossing to brag about. Instead, he’s inviting at the least 10 younger folks from deprived backgrounds to be part of him, and to discover inspiration and studying on the coldest continent. “It’s about planting seeds not flags,” he says.
Fields snowboarding to the north pole in 2010
With Phoebe Smith, an adventurer and the co-founder of the #WeTwo Foundation, Fields has secured sponsorship and assist from firms together with British Airways and Hurtigruten, the Norwegian cruise line, which is offering house aboard one of its new hybrid-powered expedition vessels.
The workforce of 16- to 18-year-olds will use the ship as a base for exploration and examine. They will work with marine biologists and geologists to monitor birds and whales, and examine the results of warming seas. They will stroll with penguins.
You kind ‘adventurer’ into Google and also you see largely males who’re center class, center aged and white
Fields is inviting anybody, together with social employees, lecturers and probation officers, to nominate candidates by way of the WeTwo web site, the place folks also can put themselves ahead. “If you’re from a background the place it’s not attainable to even think about a chance like this, you’re most likely who we wish,” he says.
It was a sense of having little left to lose that shook Fields into motion. By the time the gun jammed, he not recognised himself. As a child rising up in rural Jamaica, he had been a pure adventurer. “I at all times needed to know what was spherical the nook, or up that tree,” he says.
Fields instantly felt out of place when he moved to London, aged seven. People mocked his accent, and laughed at him when he climbed a tree to examine a squirrel’s nest or dug up bugs in the faculty playground. So he buried his intrepid spirit, not even leaving London till maturity. He met the low expectations of these round him and finally fell in with a nasty crowd.
Kayaking close to Brown Bluff on the Antarctic Peninsula as half of a visit with Hurtigruten
Kayaking close to Brown Bluff on the Antarctic Peninsula as half of a visit with HurtigrutenFields says he by no means carried a weapon however was usually shut to bother. He had been stabbed earlier than the gun incident and was as soon as homeless for per week, strolling miles throughout London by evening for worry of being attacked whereas sleeping.
Fields was working part-time as a financial institution cashier when a colleague instructed he be part of him on the Three Peaks Challenge — a climb of the tallest mountains in England, Scotland and Wales inside 24 hours. He confirmed up in his outdated trainers. “I felt a lot ache but it surely was so liberating,” he remembers. “I felt like that child once more. Instantly it was like, ‘proper, what’s subsequent?’”
A number of months later, Fields noticed James Cracknell, the Olympic rower, and the presenter Ben Fogle on breakfast TV. They had been recruiting a 3rd particular person to be part of them in a race towards a Norwegian workforce to the South Pole.
Fields didn’t get the spot, however the organisers supplied him a spot in the Polar Challenge, an annual race to the Magnetic North Pole. Fields instantly mentioned sure. “I used to be a child from Jamaica who grew up in Hackney — a pole was a pole,” he says. It was as huge a diversion as he may think about from the course he had been strolling in Hackney.
“Bruv, are you climbing the North Pole?” one buddy mentioned when Fields introduced his plans. Others instructed him: “That’s not what we do.” But when Fields began to analysis polar expeditions, one face leapt off the display screen.
Matthew Henson was a black American explorer. He and Robert Peary claimed to be the first folks to attain the geographic North Pole in 1909 (evaluation later instructed they could have fallen brief). Henson had began as Peary’s valet however grew to become a distinguished — if initially neglected — explorer. “I checked out his face and thought, properly if he can do it,” Fields says.
The North Pole trek was a revelation, and Fields has since circumnavigated Jamaica by kayak and run ultra-marathons throughout deserts. But, mountaineering over ice a century aside, he and Henson stay distinctive. “You kind ‘adventurer’ into Google and also you see largely males who’re center class, center aged and white,” Fields says.
Matthew Henson (1866-1955), took half in quite a few Arctic expeditions © Getty Images /Bettmann Archive
Fields, who now makes a dwelling as a public speaker and TV presenter, needs to increase cash to add 10 extra locations to his Antarctic expedition and is interesting for donations and new sponsorship. Before and after the expedition, members will probably be inspired and supported to share their experiences and work on environmental initiatives.
He has already witnessed the transformative energy of the outdoor in different younger folks. In 2018, he was recruiting for a “road to peak” hike up Ben Nevis in Scotland. While driving by way of east London one night, he noticed a youngster strolling out of a takeaway store. On a whim, Fields pulled over and gave him his card and mentioned: “Do you need to climb a mountain?”
Jahrel, who was 20, was understandably confused. “But 20 minutes later he known as me saying, ‘are you positive, bruv — me climb a mountain?’” The younger man reminded Fields of himself. He had multiple encounter with police and had been threatened at gunpoint. But he had a want to climb out of that life.
In a campsite throughout the expedition, Jahrel was on a video name to his father when Fields walked previous. They acquired chatting and Fields, who had been deserted by his personal father as a child, mentioned how glad he was Jahrel was there. “And his dad turned spherical and mentioned, ‘I’m so proud he’s gotten this far’. And the second he mentioned ‘I’m proud’, I observed this boy’s face drop and his eyes began filling up. It was the first time he’d ever heard the phrases ‘I’m proud of you’.”
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