Between losing his legs at 23 years old due to frostbite and then going on to be the first double amputee to have stood on the roof of the world, the summit of Mount Everest, Mark has carved out careers as a scientist, a world recognised winemaker, business creator and innovator, paralympic athlete (NZ’s 1st paralympic cycling medal, a silver at Sydney 2000), Himalayan trekking guide, philanthropist and a leading International Motivator. Who else can truly define the often used saying, “Attitude determines your Altitude”

Dr. Neil Schechter is a developmental pediatrician who has been an active clinician and researcher in the field of pediatric pain for almost 40 years. He is the Emeritus Director of the Chronic Pain Clinic at Boston Children’s Boston Hospital, was an Associate Professor of Anesthesiology at Harvard Medical School, and was the founding director of the Pain Relief Program at Connecticut Children’s Medical Center (the first U.S. pediatric pain service based in a department of pediatrics), and Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Connecticut School of Medicine. While serving as the chair of developmental medicine at the University of Connecticut, Dr. Schechter developed an interest in the burgeoning field of pediatric pain medicine and over his career has written over 140 articles, chapters, and monographs and was the senior editor of the first 2 editions of Pain in Infants, Children, and Adolescents, the first multi-authored text in the field. He has lectured widely nationally and internationally, has given numerous named lectureships, has held visiting professorships across the U.S. and Europe, and served on numerous national and international consensus committees. His research interests focused initially on the undertreatment of pediatric pain and its negative consequences and subsequently on reducing disease and procedure-related pain. More recently, he has focused on chronic and overlapping pain conditions and on communication around pain. He has received numerous honors ding appointment as a scholar in residence at the Rockefeller Foundation Study Center in Bellagio, Italy and was the first physician recipient of the Jeffrey Lawson Award for Advocacy in Pediatric Pain of the American Pain Society. In addition to his clinical and research work, Dr. Schechter is the founder and CEO of ChildKind International, a non-profit organization whose goal is reducing the pain children experience in healthcare facilities.