The records show that life for me began on February 7th 1963 in the middle of a cold English winter, but this hides the
fact that my formative months in my Mother's womb were spent in Australia and then on a four week journey by ship,
half way across the world to be born in London. I have no doubt that it was this and the fact that I was born under the
sign of Aquarius that I became a traveller, and for good or bad, a dreamer.
My earliest childhood memories of England involve walks down mysterious paths in the English countryside, through
dark majestic forests, swinging on ropes and climbing trees, for this was the carefree time of childhood in the sixties.
The second biggest journey of my life occurred when I was seven and we made the journey back across the world to
Australia, much quicker this time in a Qantas jet. Growing up in Australia was more of the same, except the majestic
oaks had become evergreen eucalypts and there was an incredible freshness about my new country. It was in the air
and in the people.
Though only an average student, in a class of high achievers, I am extremely grateful to my parents for the sacrifices
they made to give me a "Jesuit" education and with the help of teachers and classmates at Saint Ignatius College, got
me to University. Despite study being hard work, I loved school and did well at sports and received several awards for
class contribution and was sad to leave a place that had given me so much. Nevertheless they had planted the seeds
of social consciousness which are now beginning to bear fruit.
University was a different story and study rated a distant last place behind, sports, army training and anything else that
could be done to have fun. Ever the dreamer, through my years at university I still believed that I could become an
Olympic athlete, but inconsistent effort and injuries put paid to that idea, still I persisted with the training into my early
thirties.
I scraped through university in 4 years, with little idea of what I wanted to do, except that I wanted to help people. So a
year after leaving University I was back studying at Nursing school to become a Registered Nurse. It was also at this
time that I saw many of my friends leave and return from overseas trips and that desire to travel the roads of my youth
became stronger and stronger and as soon as I graduated , I said goodbye to it all, grabbed my back-pack and took
off around the world. First to South Africa to witness apartheid first hand then climbing Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, a
felluca trip down the Nile in Egypt, and sleeping on the walls of Jerusalem to save money. Sailing to Greece and
Turkey then up through Yugoslavia to begin 3 months of eurailing through Europe and Scandinavia and watching live
as the Berlin Wall was taken down stone by stone. Then on the homeward trail through the North-west frontier of
Pakistan, the Ganges in India and hiking through the Annapurna's in Nepal, on to Thailand and back to Australia, to
prepare for the next adventure.
After 3 years of nursing at my old training hospital, I found a sponsor for my next trip. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
was willing to sponsor me to come and see their country, if I was prepared to work in one of their hospitals. This I
was glad to accept as they were sending me to the North-west of the Kingdom to a military hospital in the heart of
Bedouin lands and only an hour from the pristine reefs of the Red Sea and SCUBA diving. A four week vacation that
year had me returning to Africa and a close encounter with the Mountain Gorillas in Zaire and big game watching in
the Masai Mara and Serengeti. The following year having resigned from the Saudi Hospital, I headed up through
Jordan, Syria and Lebanon, to Turkey, Paris, London, and Iceland before embarking on a 3 month tour of the USA and
Canada.
Working at Westmead Hospital in Sydney for a year I was again fortunate to be sponsored overseas, this time to
Japan as a guest of the Japanese Ministry of Education, to work as an Assistant Language Teacher for a group of
Prefectural High-schools on the island of Shikoku. This was to have a dramatic impact on my life as I met my wife
Reiko and we planned a new future together.
Except for a few 6 month spells nursing in Australia, the past 6 years have been spent running my own English
teaching business in Shikoku which has been very rewarding culturally and financially. Such that Reiko and I took off
on a 4 month round the world trip last year, through China, the Baltic States, Europe, North Africa, South America and
North America. There are too many adventures to write here except to mention the amazing Inca trail which we hiked to
Macchu Picchu and the mystical serenity of Easter Island.
Now however it is time to pay the piper for all my good fortune, and although I am still very much the dreamer its time
to become a do-er and do something for my fellow man. But what? The signposts are there if you look for them!
First, I was re-reading Gandhi and came across his famous phrase;
"Be the change you want to see in the world"
Then I came across a magazine article in a copy of Kyoto Journal which had been sitting on my bookshelf for several
years, about Satish Kumar who had walked across the world with nothing but the clothes on his back and a message
of peace. Here was something I could do, I could walk! But what would be my cause?
I realized that for a long time it had been gnawing at me that for 20 years I had tried unsuccessfully to stop my Father's
smoking habit. Instead a heart attack at the age of 57 stopped his smoking. Also having seen hundreds of hospital
patients suffer from the debilitating effects of smoking related illnesses, many to the point of death. And having
witnessed the changing tide of public opinion and government action in my home country towards tobacco and
smoking, I have been acutely aware and increasingly disappointed by the slow response in this country to promoting
a healthier environment.
So here is my cause- To educate the Japanese people about the dangers of smoking by walking from Kyushu to
Hokkaido and encouraging them to care about their health, their families, their friends and their country.
That I chose this cause is not surprising. That I took so long to read the signs is.
For the signs have been there every day. My student and good friend Doctor Masataka Kato, and his colleagues in the
Ehime Medical Association have been staunch anti-tobacco activists for longer than the 6 years I have know them.
They have become my strongest supporters, having maybe more faith in me than I do in myself. Also in discussions
with my other educated students, I am sometimes amazed at their lack of knowledge about the harmful effects of
tobacco; though I shouldn't be as they receive little or no public health education.
So here stand I, with two reasonably strong legs, a less courageous heart and probably the worst Japanese speaking
ability ; ready to make my pilgrimage across Japan for the sake of my family and all families in this beautiful country.
As I said in my first very nervous public speech to a group of Doctors gathered for the World No Tobacco Day event in
Ehime;
"I can walk the walk but I need you to help talk the talk."
When I think its not possible, which is often, something inside me reminds me of the Voice that whispers to Kevin
Costner in the movie "Field of Dreams";
"If you build it they will come".
My hope is that once I start this project in earnest people will join in and help.
If you are reading this I hope you will too.
Please see my "how can you help page".
Kindest Regards Mark Gibbens
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