A boys' own job: we'd fly helicopters and pull bodies from the slopes

I've learned many things in life but having your legs amputated then scaling Mount Everest taught me not only can that you do anything but that you can always do it better. In that respect it's no different from schooldays.

It took me three goes at university before I stuck it out but I did and it was worthwhile. I grew up on the South Island of New Zealand in the 1960s and 70s. Although we struggled financially, it was an idyllic place, rural and beautiful and away from the pressures, such as drugs, that kids face today.

Despite generally a very positive overall education, I struggled at primary school. Almost a third of that time I was away from school with bronchitis and pneumonia. I fell behind learning the alphabet and even later on in life I still struggled to put words together.

Secondary school was more upbeat. I generally worked hard and if I didn't, I still squeezed through. Luckily, I had really great teachers, one of whom taught me geography. It was he who inspired me to become a mountaineer and we formed an alpine club. I was about aged 12. That worked for me as I wasn't good at rugby - in fact I was crap at it - and avoided the cliques.

There was also tremendous leadership from the top and I've realised that matters enormously.

In 2003 I toured 135 schools meeting 60,000 kids over more than four months talking about the challenges of life and my own story. As soon as I met the principal I knew what the culture would be like. As long as kids are given the right environment to learn in then they really can flourish and make the right decisions for themselves.