Friday, April 29, 2005

On my good friend Christian, who amazes me

My friend Christian, solicitor by day, dj by night, is currently on a 1,000 mile bike ride from Land’s End to John O’Groats to raise money for tsunami relief.

Christian was in Sri Lanka with his mum when the tsunami hit; thankfully they were all right, suffering no more than a ruined holiday.

Christian loves that region of the world and has spent quite a bit of time over there. He has great stories, mostly about eating weird stuff in Vietnam and Cambodia (and their digestive consequences: he loves telling stories about shit), and he does great, very un-PC, impressions of Bangkok street merchants and tuk-tuk drivers.

When Christian was first in Thailand he went to visit one of his countrymen in a Thai prison, and subsequently ended up representing him under his law firm’s pro bono scheme. While Christian was still a trainee solicitor, in 2001, the Law Society named him Young Human Rights Lawyer of the Year. Christian was given the award “for his outstanding pro bono work in highlighting the civil, political and human rights violations of prisoners abroad and his instrumental role in the changing of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office's policy regarding support for clemency pleas of Britons imprisoned overseas.”

And Christian is really really fun to hang out with.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

All that social conscience mixed up with a roller rink DJ by night, now that’s quite the combination. Nice to have someone with both sides of their coin so evenly balanced.
k

Anonymous said...

Hero.