Former Dragons ace and adventurer Richard Parks has certainly had a career on and off the field like no other!
On the field, Parks is a former Welsh international, earning caps against South Africa, Fiji, Scotland, and Ireland. He also represented the Barbarians and Wales Sevens on the IRB world circuit and in the World Cup.
Away from rugby he has tackled challenges of a different kind and on Tuesday 12th July 2011 he made history becoming the first ever person to climb the highest mountain on each of the world's seven continents and stand on all three poles (The North Pole, The South Pole and the summit of Everest) within the same calendar year, completing this feat in under seven months.
As a back row forward, Parks made a name for himself as a hard, prolific tackler and support player. But his story started in 1977, born in Pontypridd to his Jamaican mother Lee and Welsh father Derek.
He grew up Newport and attended Rougemont and Monmouth Schools. Richard’s first passion was actually motocross, and he began racing competitively from the age of 6. But when the financial demands of the sport outgrew his sponsorship he started playing rugby.
During a professional career spanning 13 years, Parks was an integral part of both the Principality Cup winning Pontypridd side and the Powergen Cup winning Leeds Tykes.
After a spell playing for the French club Perpignan, he returned to Wales with Dragons, passionate to represent his country again.
He returned to Wales with a bang, with two man of the match displays in his first two games. The first half of the season saw him back to his best forcing himself back into contention for the Welsh squad.
Sadly, injury prevented his return to the international stage and ultimately forced his early retirement in May 2009 from what was a highly successful 13-year career in professional rugby.
Following his forced retirement from rugby, Richard reassessed his direction on life. Lying in bed following his second operation to repair his shoulder and whilst reading Sir Ranulph Fiennes’ book, he was inspired by the mental, physical, and technical challenges of performance in extreme environments.
Richard discovered the seven summits; The highest mountain on each of the world’s continents. Immediately as he had learned of them, he had decided that he was going to climb them. He has since made history twice with two incredible feats of endurance.
Firstly, a world first expedition called the 737 Challenge, where in July 2011 he became the first ever person to climb the highest mountain on each of the world's seven continents and stand on all three poles (the North Pole, the South Pole and the summit of Everest) within seven months.
His record setting 737 Challenge was completed in 6 months, 11 days, 7 hours and 53 minutes and raised over £320,000 in aid of Marie Curie Cancer Care, created 63 million opportunities to see (the number of times people read, watched or heard about the challenge) and culminated in a BBC Wales four-part documentary (which has since been sold worldwide). The 737 Challenge produced the advertising value equivalent of a campaign worth over £3m to Marie Curie.
On 4th January 2014 Richard became the fastest Briton in history to ski solo, unsupported and unassisted from the coast of Antarctica to the South Pole. He also became the first Welshman in history to make this epic solo journey.
Parks has never been daunted by any challenge in his life. He has always faced up to adversity and met it head on, whether on the rugby field or tackling the highest mountains in the world or the bleakest and most hostile environments at the North and South Poles. An inspiration to us all.
