Tracks of My Life with Dan Pembroke

Tracks of My Life is a show on RNIB Connect Radio presented and produced by Toby Davey where he invites a guest to take us on a journey through their life, sharing the tracks that mark important moments which bring back memories to them.

Their chosen tracks of their life might include the first track they can remember hearing, the first track they bought, a number of tracks that mark moments in their life and the final track, a track that they would like to pass on which might give people hope for the future.

 In this trimmed down podcast version of Tracks of My Life Toby is joined by Tokyo Paralympic Javelin Gold medallist Dan Pembroke who also smashed Paralympic records with his F13 Javelin 69.52metre medal winning throw.

Through Dan’s Tracks of My Life we will go on a journey from early life at the age of 6 sitting on the sofa with his Dad and jamming along on the harmonica to a great Gary Moore track which as Dan says really showed the power of music to him even at such an early age.   

Dan will then recall  some of the adventures and fishing trips he went on with his Dad along the Thames on his Dad’s fishing boat which with all the camouflage  netting would blend into the river bank.

Then we move to late teenage life for Dan and great party nights out with his best friend Joe and reflecting  on life for Dan as a teenager at school which was not such a great time for him.

Although Dan was diagnosed with the condition Retinitis Pigmentosa at an early age he had always been into sport and only missed out on competing at the London 2012 Olympic Games due to an elbow injury.  After missing out on London and feeling quite down  at the time, it was a track from the film ‘Into the Wild’  

That jolted Dan to kickstart a burning ambition he had always had of going travelling to see the world while he still had enough good usable vision left.  

Then we will hear from Dan as to how he first ended up in Sardinia, spending time in the wilds on his own fishing from a kayak and sleeping on beautiful beaches.  

Dan returned back to Sardinia in 2015 this time working as a freelance personal trainer and massage therapist for the summer tourists.  After a few months Dan met a local lady working in her family's supermarket who he was instantly captivated by and managed to pluck up the courage to ask her for coffee, they hit it off, started dating and ended up travelling around the world together.

It was in Tasmania while on their travels that Dan realised that his sight was really getting worse, and they decided to come back  to the UK for Dan to study at the Royal National College for the Blind in Hereford and it was meeting a few of his old athletics mates that inspired Dan to get back into competing but this time for the Tokyo Paralympic Games.

Finally Dan will reflect on how taking up sport again as a visually impaired athlete has turned around his opinion and feelings about his eye sight 180 degrees which has certainly  paved a pathway into the future for Dan where he feels free.

You can catch the hour-long version of Tracks of My Life with Toby’s guest’s music tracks in full by tuning in to RNIB Connect Radio every Tuesday at 7pm, repeated on Thursday at 1pm and Sunday at 8pm.