Fraser Bathgate is one of the founding members of Disabled Divers International and is a driving force behind the deptherapy charity. He is spending a huge amount of his time and his energy to promote awareness of the needs of the disabled. The inspiration he spreads is based on personal experience as Bathgate himself was suddenly disabled from the waist down in 1986. After a period of extreme darkness he found his solace in scuba diving and has never looked back. He became the world’s first paraplegic PADI Instructor in 1994 and won the DEMA Reaching Out Award in 2011. I found his story and his personality truly inspirational.
DDI is a non-profit organisation with the aim to promote, develop and conduct scuba diving training for people with a physical or mental challenge. I was surprised but almost everyone, with a physician’s approval, can try diving. Scuba diving is only a problem for persons suffering from epilepsy.
The DDI Divemaster/instructor program was divided into a theoretical and a practical part. The practical part was quite challenging. We were taught how to get someone with little or no mobility in and out of the water, how to dress a paralyzed person with a wetsuit in less than 90 seconds (yes it is possible!) or how to use underwater tactile communication to share a dive with a blind person. It is important within this program to be open minded, flexible and able adapt to the specific needs of each disabled person.
During that weekend I also got to know more about Deptherapy. John Campbell, the owner of Dive Style in Reading, UK, organized a fundraiser event for the charity. The volunteer Richard Cullen introduced the program to some of the British veterans. The aim of the deptherapy is the use of scuba diving to rehabilitate young soldiers recovering from crippling injuries. The presentation was quite touching; deptherapy can be a real life changer for some veterans. You also could feel strong bonds and a family spirit within the members of this worthy charity.
