Mike is a 15 year career firefighter and has 17 years as a paramedic. He started his career at a young age as a volunteer. He's also a husband and a father of two young children.
I was scrolling through Facebook one day when I happened upon a post from a firefighter in Central Virginia. He was asking for donations to raise money for the Center of Excellence. He wasn't simply asking for money though, he was asking for sponsorship for a run he had planned. That run would take him from Central Virginia across the Potomac River to Southern Maryland up to the Center of Excellence, making it a distance of roughly 80 miles. After reading his post, I reached out and floated the idea of having him as a guest on the show. After some discussion back and forth and an hour long phone call, we settled on a day and time. Mike and I sat down together in my apartment and recorded this conversation.
Mike shares his early brushes with death and trauma and how those times formed and affected him. He's open about the mistakes he's made. The alcohol he used as an escape and the road he is on towards recovery.
Mike-VA