*As a note of caution, this episode of "Should Have Listened To My Mother," contains graphic content that may be disturbing. My guest, David Thomas is many things, but modest, he is not. He'd be the first to tell you that he's not modest, he's made mistakes and he's still trying to figure out life. A very successful public speaking coach, a former fireman and a best selling author from Halifax, Yorkshire, England, Thomas did not have an easy childhood. His abusive mother and step-father, did not make things easy, but with time and convictions, he learned that "everything comes down to responsibility- you can't keep blaming other people for your problems. You have to take responsibility for your actions."
He's not a professional comic but laughter comes easy for David Thomas. It's actually one field that he hasn't tried professionally, but would love to some day. Thomas is a Global Professional Speaker and a CEO Presentation Skills Coach. In case you haven't heard about his crazy memory abilities, he's also an International Grandmaster of Memory, broken Guinness record for reciting Pi to 22,500 digits, became US Memory Champion and so much more.
From the age of 4, David recalls the nightly sexual abuse he suffered from his alcoholic mother, Gillian and then the years of physical abuse from his step-father. David had a younger brother to protect, so he kept this secret to himself to be certain that his younger brother would not be exposed to any of it.
Unfortunately, David's mother died in her early 50's, almost 21 years since the time of this recording. She died at a young age due to an alcohol induced heart attack. David was happy that he had put his neglect behind him in order to move forward prior to his mother's death. They had rekindled their relationship.
As if the abuse wasn't enough, David also attempted suicide twice, but was not successful. When asked if this was life changing or a sign that he was meant to live a long life, his response was, "no, not at all, it meant that I was just terrible at trying to kill myself." Again, gallows humor, but it's easy for him to make light looking back so many years later.
David wanted to help others who had suffered abuse under the hand of loved ones, so he wrote what turned out to be a #1 bestselling book in the UK, "Tell Me Why Mummy"- An inspirational true story of one man overcoming enormous odds including sexual abuse from his alcoholic mother to choose his own path in life and become and become a truly exceptional human being.
Thomas says "you only have 3 choices in life as far as moving on after an abusive, challenging upbringing-
Therapy and researching and writing his book help free himself from the horrors of his childhood.