Love Wrexham Magazine Issue 1 - July 2019
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<strong>Wrexham</strong>ites<br />
Brymbo’s Very Own Superhero<br />
Local adventurer Barry Hayes at Brymbo Steelworks.<br />
When you first meet Barry Hayes, it’s<br />
hard to imagine this is the guy who’s<br />
rowed across two oceans and has just<br />
completed a 550-mile row from Tower<br />
Bridge to the Eiffel Tower. He’s so<br />
reserved and humble, I couldn’t stop<br />
thinking how similar his two personas<br />
were to Clark Kent and Superman.<br />
And true to form, it wasn’t the thought<br />
of rowing across thousands of miles<br />
of ocean that filled him with fear; it<br />
was the thought of talking about it in<br />
public. When he finished the first row<br />
– the one across the Pacific in 2014<br />
– people were urging him to relate his<br />
experiences and even though the first<br />
time he did it was only in front of six<br />
people, it made him physically sick!<br />
The reactions to his seminars were so<br />
positive, however, it showed him that<br />
he could combine his experiences and<br />
relate them effectively to people. He<br />
found his ‘silly little stories’ prompted<br />
people to go off and do life-changing<br />
things themselves.<br />
Amazingly, speaking companies hadn’t<br />
been particularly interested in taking<br />
Barry on as a speaker even after his<br />
row across the Pacific. For the Indian<br />
Ocean row, however, they had better<br />
camera and recording equipment<br />
and were able to capture a lot more<br />
amazing moments from that journey.<br />
This footage attracted a lot of coverage<br />
and more companies have contacted<br />
him to speak for them.<br />
Barry’s adventurous nature has<br />
always been evident: when he was<br />
14, he walked from Chepstow to<br />
Prestatyn! What really inspired him<br />
were the stories his father, a sailor for<br />
many years, would regale him with.<br />
Tales about his exciting and varied<br />
adventures inspired Barry to want to<br />
be in the military too and experience<br />
the same exciting lifestyle. He was<br />
diagnosed with epilepsy, however, and<br />
was unable to join up. Even this didn’t<br />
put him off and he decided that he too<br />
would be in a position to tell his son<br />
about his adventures one day. He just<br />
needed an idea…<br />
One night after a session in the pub, he<br />
went home and started looking<br />
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