The Adventure Rehab Team
Jim Bonney: Amputee Mentor, Coach & Director
Jim joined the Royal Marines direct from university in 1999. He has always enjoyed the outdoor life and in his spare time he climbed and paddled extensively in the UK, the Alps and the Andes. A mountaineering accident in 2001 resulted in a below-knee amputation in December 2002. Following rehabilitation, Jim regained his Royal Marines green beret and served on land and at sea, before commanding a specialist organisation rehabilitating injured recruits. In 2009, he participated as a leader in an expedition to the Himalayas, in which injured Royal Marines undergoing rehabilitation trekked to Everest Base Camp and climbed some Himalayan peaks.
Jim is a Summer Mountain Leader, a single-pitch climbing leader, a British Canoe Union four-star kayak leader and a PADI open-water diver, MIAS Level 2 Mountain Biking Instructor. He holds membership of the Institute of Outdoor Learning and the Institute of Leadership and Management and is a qualified NLP practitioner.
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Richard Spink: Physiotherapist
Richard is an experienced Chartered Physiotherapist. He has extensive musculoskeletal experience and has a keen interest in the treatment of sports injuries. He graduated from Southampton University in 1999 then after a foundation in the NHS he spent a spell in professional football before settling in private practice. He has successfully treated world class athletes in a variety of sports from boxing and judo to cycling and running.
Richard is also a keen outdoorsman, passionate about the learning potential of adventure and the therapeutic benefit of the outdoors.
rich.spink@adventurerehab.co.uk
Richard Hales: Physiotherapist
Rich has been qualified as a Chartered Physiotherapist for 14 years. He has spent the last eight years working with the Royal Marines as the joint clinical lead in Hunter Company, the Rehabilitation Department for recruits who sustain injuries during training. A passionate outdoorsman, Rich has travelled extensively, including trips to Nepal. In 2009 he returned to the Everest region (alongside Jim) as the physiotherapist for the Khumbu Challenge expedition, when injured service personnel trekked to Everest base camp.
Building on experience gained with the Royal Marines, Rich relishes the prospect of developing rehabilitation based in the outdoors.
richard.hales@adventurerehab.co.uk
Kirsty Bonney
Kirsty’s first insight into the world of rehabilitation was when Jim was injured in a mountaineering accident, two days after proposing to her!! She supported Jim throughout his recovery and has experienced the highs and lows of being a carer and support provider during this process. Kirsty is now uniquely positioned to provide support to clients’ families and carers as well as to clients themselves.
Following on from this experience Kirsty decided to retrain as a doctor and as part of her training undertook an elective with the medical team at the Royal Marines Training Centre, where she experience first hand the rehabilitation pathway undertaken by injured recruits.
Kirsty is passionate about the outdoors and enjoys dragon boating, canoeing, walking and climbing. She met Jim whilst leading a youth development expedition to Belize. She has also travelled and lead community projects in East Africa, Nepal, Peru and Indonesia.
When she’s not working with Adventure Rehab, Kirsty can be found chasing her two sons around Dartmoor or carrying out her day job as a doctor at Torbay Hospital.
kirsty@adventurerehab.co.uk
Jules Williams: Chef & logistics co-ordinator
Jules is no stranger to the exacting demands of delivering excellence under time pressure. A professional chef, with a reputation for creativity and understated perfection, Jules has previously lead small and large kitchen teams from gourmet pub kitchens to the galleys of luxury super yachts, cooking on private islands to grand London establishments such as The Ritz Hotel. Jules left his position in the commercial catering sector having been chosen to be the head chef to HRH The Prince of Wales. In this role, he cooked on many prestigious occasions over a period of seven years, including the Royal Family’s celebration of HM The Queen’s 80th Birthday at Kew Palace in April 2006.
He is passionate about food and the environment and its links with ecology and farming, a former professional yachtsman his skills are a unique blend of determination, calm efficiency and a natural coaching manner. With responsibility for logistics and of course ensuring the clients are well fed, Jules adds that extra element of essential life skills to any programme.
Jules lives in Devon in sight of the sea and is found at the helm of a boat as often as his young family allow it!
jules@adventurerehab.co.uk
Dan Withers: Events Support
Dan has been actively coaching and leading diverse range of groups in the outdoors for over 15 years. He has a range of outdoor skills and qualifications that he has applied to almost everyoutdoor environment around the world. He is a British Canoe Union coach assessor and can regularly be found on the river passing on pearls of wisdom to aspiring coaches.
Alongside his own passion for the outdoors, Dan is also a qualified lecturer in outdoor leadership and safety, working with Further Education colleges in the Devon and Cornwall area. He has set up a number of commercial enterprises aimed at encouraging children to be more active and involved in the outdoors.
dan@adventurerehab.co.uk