Thank you for your time Darren, as an ex-user myself this seminar was most inspirational, touching, and above all without a doubt honest. You are doing such a fantastic job! Keep up the good work. I believe that all the youth of today should be aware of this seminar and listen to what you have to say. Because you my friend have a story to tell! Thank you again.

Kayla -

Just to inform you of the impact Darren had on Year 10 students – in my 21 years of teaching, I have never witnessed a keynote speaker or program facilitator that can capture the complete attention of an audience of one hundred and twenty 16 year olds. It is difficult, even as a teacher with appropriate classroom management, to obtain that much cooperation! Every student sat, listened, absorbed and processed his presentation. His message was powerful and the students acknowledged their appreciation by completing a questionnaire and provided him with feedback. This process in itself is amazing, as usually one would find that these students would rarely provide a rating for a presentation from an outsider, let alone make written comment as feedback. All too often, we would usually find such reviews screwed up and in the bin! Not this time – as the students recognised the need to let Darren know how much of an impact he had on them and hopefully affect their choices in the future. At the end of his presentation, many students chose to personally thank Darren with a heartfelt handshake and some idle chat. Darren’s proactive program was observed by other teachers who made positive comments about the impact he had on the students at the time of the presentation. Coming from a school which has a large percentage of students from a disadvantaged background, the enticement for students to ‘try’ various drugs and participate in binge drinking is often too much to ignore. The education that Darren imparts is invaluable for these young people.

High School Welfare Coordinator -

I invited Darren to come out and talk to our senior students. He was obliging in accepting my request and disseminated a very strong message to his audience. The students were very focused and followed up the talk with some interesting and telling thoughts on the presentation. All of the students took some very valuable information from the talk. It was conducted in well supervised environment where students were free to ask questions of Darren. He was direct and honest with his responses. The students applauded his openness and humility. He told his story without glorifying a much maligned experience. This made the experience for the students authentic and pertinent to there immediate lives. Darren was the consummate professional. He conducted his presentation with the aid of appropriate audio-visual support and set strict parameters on time. His message has been heard by our students and I hope that this important weapon he has equipped them with, namely education, can ultimately be an antidote to a sordid and thriving industry that so stealthily targets the vulnerable. Well done, Darren.

Student Education Coordinator -  

I felt today's seminar showed everything there was to show to touch all that were involved in the speech about not using drugs. Very powerful powerpoint presentation. Amazing person.

Miriam - 

Extremely informative, inspirational, and should be supported by the government. Great work Darren, and great work from the NRL and ARL who support this initiative.

Ronald -