“If you dwell on the negatives it will continue to negatively impact your life now and maybe for ever. One must find a way to use it as a foundation to move on and forward. If you don’t accept it, it can just eat your soul.”

Jonty Warneken, Psychology, 1993

Inspired in Hull with Jonty Warneken: From Adversity to Acceptance
Thursday 9 December | 18:00 – 19:00 | Canham Turner, University of Hull Campus
Book Now >>

Join us for an Inspired in Hull talk from Psychology graduate Jonty Warneken. After completing his Psychology Degree at Hull in 1993, Jonty had plans for a career in the army and playing rugby union. Since the age of seven all he had wanted to do was be a military pilot and play rugby for his country. An horrific accident at the age of 22 changed his entire life, though, resulting in severe injuries to his legs, body and skull resulting in him losing his left leg below the knee, having his skull rebuilt .

But Jonty is not one to let adversity stop him. His dreams of joining the army and playing rugby professionally were over, but he soon changed his career path and has since had an extremely successful career in private banking & investment management. He has worked his way up in global firms in Yorkshire and London including Deloittes, Ansbacher & Co, Sanlam and moved back to Yorkshire where he is currently  ‘Head of the Northern Region’ at Brooks Macdonald. Next year he is also aiming to become the world’s first disabled ‘Iron Ice Man’ when he competes in the Iron Man Race, having already swum an Ice Mile.

Jonty has not allowed his disability to stop him participating in the world of sport, pushing the boundaries of what is achievable and constantly testing himself. He was the first disabled person in the world to swim an ‘Ice Mile’ (a one mile swim, in water below 5c in just a standard swimming costume) where his swim was classified an ‘Extreme Ice Mile” due to the distance he swam and time spent in the water. In 2019 Jonty was part of the Great Britain team at the Ice Swimming World Championships in Murmansk, Russia. Jonty sits on the global board of the International Ice Swimming Association  responsible for developing and administrating the sport and they are hoping for Ice Swimming to be a Winter Olympic Sport in the next few years.

Outside of Ice swimming, he has undertaken speed marches with the Royal Marines, done multiple week long cycle rides to raise money for charity and recently swum in English Channel as part of a four person relay. This summer Jonty was the only amputee at the Leeds Olympic Distance triathlon in Leeds which he successfully completed and is now currently training for the 2022 Ice Swimming World Championship in February in Poland; a 115 Mile Ultra race on skis in the Artic in March;  and then will be in training to be part of the first disabled relay team to swim the North Channel (Ireland to Scotland) in June.  Finally in September Jonty is attempting to complete an Ironman race in Italy to hopefully become the world’s first disabled ‘Iron Ice Man’

Join us on campus for our first in person event since the start of the pandemic, and hear from Jonty who will be talking to us about getting over adversity, how he copes with his disability and his approach to life.

Inspired in Hull with Jonty Warneken: From Adversity to Acceptance
Thursday 9 December | 18:00 – 19:00 | Canham Turner, University of Hull Campus
Book Now >>