Sometimes you meet someone and within minutes you just know that this meeting will stay with you for the rest of your life; that it will impact the way you think, it will make you re-evaluate the things that you believe to be important in your life, the things that you thought defined you.
Our meeting with All Ireland winning inter- county Hurler , Dessie Fitzgerald is the perfect example of this ; his personal story is one that includes extreme physical and emotional hardship and yet he has managed to navigate his way through these challenges and emerged as a beacon of hope and inspiration for his community and the future generations of young hurlers to come.
Here we talk to Dessie about his journey from lying paralysed in a hospital bed to where he is now, having finished his training as a life coach and set up a practice that will enable him to share the wisdom he has gained along the way with others. We discuss the need for alternatives to the conventional male role models especially in the world of professional sports. We learn about the steps he took to find his way through depression and grief,and discuss the support structures that are keenly needed in the area of men's mental health especially in sports and rural communities in Ireland.
You can find out more about Dessie and access him for lifecoaching work at www.dessiefitzgerald.com