Fighting For Veterans & 1st Responders - My Story

In 1994 I was involved in an incident in Ottawa where I was stabbed thirteen times.  I suffered two severe leg injuries and ten other wounds on my back.  After surgery was over I had a doctor assess me and was told I would always have problems walking and would never be able to run.  For sixteen years after this incident I suffered with PTSD and used my injuries as an excuse to be lazy, 

In 2007, a very close friend of mine was serving with the Canadian Forces in Afghanistan and he was so excited because they were opening a Tim Hortons on the base for them. I asked him if they had to pay for the food and coffee and he said yes. My reply was, “Not anymore.”

I started a small Facebook group called Tim Hortons For Our Troops and asked people to send the paper gift certificates with a message of thanks on the back of them. Within a few days, it had about 3000 members and was spreading like wildfire. VOCM News in Newfoundland did a story on it and that’s when things went crazy. I contacted the MFRC in Toronto and they gave out their address as a place where people could send the messages and they would have them delivered. CITY NEWS in Toronto then picked this story up and within the first year we had sent over $100,000 in free coffee to soldiers with messages of support on the back of them.

I started to receive a lot of messages asking for pen pals from civilians which I gladly set people up with. This turned into a new mission of its own, and within a few months I had set up over 2000 people, including ten elementary schools, as pen pals with soldiers overseas. We also introduced military families to each other, fellow soldiers with each other and, most importantly, families of fallen soldiers were meeting each other through this page to help each other grieve.
This page now has over 150,000 members from all over the world and still going strong.

In 2010, I decided to start “The Gratitude Project” which encouraged people to send a photo holding a Thank You sign. I would put them together in a YouTube video and do my best to make sure that our troops would see them. Well, we received enough photos to make ten YouTube videos featuring people from every corner of the world. The biggest shock was opening my email inbox and seeing a photo from Gene Simmons and Shannon Tweed. 

After Gene posted about my page, every metal and rock band that came to Calgary would send tickets for me to bring veterans to their shows. I got to bring veterans to Kiss, Motley Crue, Megadeth, Ozzy, Iron Maiden, Black Label Society, etc. A lot of the veterans had PTSD so these nights out meant more to them than can be put into words.

I met my wife in 2012 and we had a beautiful daughter together in 2014; this was my wake-up call to go and talk to someone about my mental health and I am very thankful that I did.
I believe the reason I was spared that night in 1994 was to become a father and a husband. These are the two greatest things that have ever happened to me and my number one reason for starting my weight loss journey. I want to be around when my daughter graduates and gets married way, way, way down the road.

Since my incident in 1994, I have always tried to pay it back to those that saved my life that night and I felt pretty good about accomplishing that up to this point but this was just the beginning. In 2018, I was at a park with our daughter who was four at the time. She wanted to race me home from the playground but I said, “I’m sorry sweetie, Daddy can’t run.” The look of disappointment on her face I will never forget as long as I live.I decided that was enough and promised myself I would lose 100 pounds in 2019, one way or another. I needed something to keep me motivated so I pledged online that I would donate $1 per pound that I lost in the year to Vets Canada. A group I have worked very closely with over the years that gets homeless veterans off the streets and assists veterans who are struggling. 

In November of 2019, I hit my 100-pound weight loss goal and several others matched my $100 donation. In total, we were able to raise $750.00 for this organization.
I wanted to keep going so I pledged that I would lose another 50 pounds by the end of 2020 and donate the money to Can Praxis which is a horse therapy program that assists veterans and first responders with PTSD through the use of horses. This is where things really changed.

In December, I was on a CALGARY ROAST AND TOAST page and I posted a thank you to two guys who were making fun of the first time I tried a gym about a year before. I was on an exercise bike and there were two guys behind me on the treadmill. I could hear them referring to the back of my neck as a package of sausages and laughing very loudly. Those guys lit a fire under me and although it messed me up for a while, it eventually was used as motivation.

I was contacted by the owners at Southpaw Boxing Gym in Calgary who saw my story and offered me a year membership and training to hit my goals. Boxing has changed my life; after struggling with PTSD for 16 years, this place has been a Godsend. They are truly a family – right from the owners to the trainers and all the members; I have never had so much support in my life.The owners told me about their “Chump To Champ” program and instantly I thought this could be my final way to pay it back to the first responders who saved my life. I decided to join and my first fight was supposed to be in April 2020 (postponed due to COVID). I started a Go Fund me page and will be splitting 100% of the donations between my two favourite charities: Vets Canada and Can Praxis. It was a fight that originally got me in to this situation and it will be a fight that will close the door on it for me.

About a month ago I met Damian Robertson who is a Canadian Army and Tattoo artist here in Calgary, Alberta.  I met Damian through the founder of the Can Praxis program and I had help him auction off a painting he did to raise funds for Can Praxis,  After the auction was closed Damian contacted me and said for all the work I have done for Veterans over the last thirteen years and helping him with his painting he would design and give me a tattoo,

This was the AMAZING end result

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by DaveMurYYC (@davemuryyc) on Aug 18, 2020 at 6:16pm PDT

Since I started boxing training, I’ve had a lot of people say:

“You’re too old for that.”
“You’ll never keep up with the training.”
“That is way too intense for you

.”
Well, I love when people tell me I can’t do something as that’s what has been lighting my fire for years. Two weeks ago, one of my trainers had me running on a treadmill for four minutes straight. (Something I hadn’t done in 26 years!)

Too old? Too intense? We’ll see about that.
See you in the ring.

Update : August 2020

My fight was postponed due to COVID but I am still training for this event.  If you are interested in sponsoring me please go to my GO FUND ME PAGE

Here are some additional links if you ware interested : 

How I Lost 100lbs in 2019 and my advice for anyone starting out. 

Southpaw Gym My New Home 

My Second chance at life

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You Can't see me Getting faster #speedbag #Boxing #yycboxing

A post shared by DaveMurYYC (@davemuryyc) on Aug 24, 2020 at 5:29pm PDT

My New Home

On December 4th 2019 I made a post on the "Calgary Roast & Toast" facebook page which is a place for people to rant about negative experiences in Calgary or toast to people doing great things in our city.

I posted on their a "Toast" to two guys at World Health gym on my first visit there that messed me up for quite awhile. I was sitting on a exercise bike in front of two guys on a treadmill. I heard laughing behind me and of course being a very self conscious almost 400lb guy I immediately in my head assume they were mocking me.  I then heard one of them refer to the back of my neck looking like a pack of sausages and laughing about it together.  I left that day and didn't go back and it honestly messed me up for quite awhile afterwards. I didn't go back to the gym for almost a year later when I joined Fit4less and started my weightloss mission.  I needed motivation to not quit so I decided to pledge to donate $1 for every pound I would lose to VETS Canada.  A registered charity that assists struggling Veterans and gets homeless Veterans off the streets.  On November 10th, 2019 I hit my goal and made my donation along with several others matching me we were able to donate $750 to Vets Canada.

The post on the Roast & Toast page received a lot of mostly positive comments and support from people all over Calgary.  I even had about 20-30 people reach out to me in the same situation asking for tips and advice on how I lost the weight.  That to me is one of the greatest things about posting my story on there.

ON Thursday December 5th I received a message on the post from Jonathan at Southpaw Boxing gym in Calgary.  He told me that him and Warren saw my post and were inspired by my story.  They assured me that it was like a family there and no judgement from any of their members and told me to come in and try it out.  They gave me a one year membership and unlimited training for a year which blew my mind.  There were no stipulations like "You have to post this on all your social media channels, you have to bring in X many members" or anything like that.  It was just real.

On December 10th I went in to Southpaw not knowing what to expect. 

  I met Warren Grenier who gave me a tour and introduced me to some members.  I met Steve Claggett on day one and his first words to me "Hey Champ lets do this" Steve is a professional fighter that is pretty highly ranked in Canada and that day he gave me a shout out on his Instagram calling me a champ.  That simple gesture meant a lot to me after everything I had been through in my previous fails at some of the bigger gyms.

The next day I did my first Circuit class with Bryenna and it was rough.  She is amazing and so

supportive and told me to start at my own pace.  For the first time in my life I did a burpee I had heard many horror stories about them but here I was doing them for thirty seconds at a time in-between each workout station.  At the end of the class I was sitting on the floor well mostly because I couldn't move but every member that was in the class with me came over and gave me a fist bump and said "Awesome job man" I finished my class and went in to the change room and thankfully I was alone because I was a mess.  Not to get all cheesy here but I for the first time in my life felt welcome at a gym.  Class after class with Bryenna and I started to feel less and less sore and one of the stations on a most recent day was running on a treadmill for 2:00.

To most that may not seem like a big deal but I have half a muscle in my left leg from a stabbing in 1994 so I hadn't even tried to run in over 25 years. I looked at her and said "I don't know if I can do this" she just nodded and said "Just try" so I did and succeeded.  The next class with her it wasn't one of the stations but I had adrenaline going and decided to run again.  She gave me a belief in myself that I haven't had in a very long time.

At Southpaw they also have a 12 x 12 Russian Army Boot camp.  I had seen the videos posted and honestly I was terrified to try it and that's when I met Anthony Johnson.  The class is 12 stations of insane workouts, things I never in a million years thought I would be doing with very little breaks in between.  After my first class it took me almost thirty minutes to catch my breathe but felt pretty good.  For the next three days I couldn’t move that much, I was sore in places I didn’t know I had places but two days later I went back and it got a little easier.

After six weeks at Southpaw and trying various classes I started to eye the speed bag.  I had seen people using it and decided to give it a try and having the coordination of a turnip I could only keep the thing going with one hand for about ten seconds at a time.  My first attempt at the speedbag.  A coworker said "You look like a little kitten playing with a ball of string in this video" I shrugged it off and it just let my fire to go and keep trying.

 On my second day trying it (after the 12x12) Vlad Goldenstein who is one of the trainers at Southpaw say me struggling and came over to give me some pointers.  It helped a lot and I could get the speedbag going for about twenty seconds now.   

On January 28^th I went in with a mission and I wasn’t leaving until I kept it going for forty seconds and not only did I achieve that goal I was on that thing for forty five minutes.    Steve Clagget was sparing in the ring that day and also came over to me and said “Stop looking at it, close your eyes and listen to it”  very wise advise and on my most recent speedbag day I kept it going for three minutes straight eight times with thirty second breaks.   Other members also have stopped up and given me more tips so thank you Kyle Beattie.   I also want to say thank you to Kenny Dusseault for always coming over to talk and offer tips even while he’s training other people.

Southpaw is my new home and a second family.  This is not a sponsored post or advertisement it’s just some real feelings from someone who was mocked and ridiculed several times which in the end I used as motivation to keep going.  I signed up for their Chump To Champ competition and will be having my first fight on April 25^th.  Am I nervous? A little but I know I’ll give it my all and make the Veterans and First Responders I’m doing this as a fundraiser for very proud.

 If you’d like to know more about what I’m doing for Veterans & 1st Responders CLICK HERE.  This is also a write up I did about my second chance at life and how I am trying to make the most of it. 

Plain and simple Southpaw has changed my life, I have never had so much belief in myself.   I am a different person at work and at home.   I have more patience and it takes an awful lot to bother me these days.  I used to have a lot of panic attacks & anxiety attacks from my incident in 1994 but those are gone.  There is nothing like going to let off steam after a hectic day at work and I am hooked.

If you’re out there reading this and want to try it out please send me a message and you can join me at one of their classes for free. Trust me you will fall in love with this place and will be the best decision you ever made.  Finally Thank you to all the members who have come up to me in the past seven weeks to introduce themselves after seeing my posts online.  

Southpaw Boxing Gym - 6624 Centre St S – (587) 433-2218

Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/southpawboxinggym

Instagram : https://www.instagram.com/southpawboxingyyc/

You can follow my progress here :
Instagram : https://www.instagram.com/davemuryyc/

Twitter : https://twitter.com/DaveMurYYC

I want to send a huge shout out to Crackmacs for sharing my original posts throughout the year about my weight loss and also matching my donation to Vets Canada for year one.  Also Howie`s Pizza in Calgary, The Canadian Hero and Kirk Lubinov for matching me as well.  Crackmacs is also behind the Calgary Roast & Toast page and have been very supportive.  Thank You 

Click Here To Sponsor me for my fight for Veterans & 1st Responders

My 2nd Chance At Life

My name is Dave Murphy and I live in Calgary, Alberta however I grew up in many small towns in Newfoundland.  In 1994 I received a second chance at life and this is my story and how I’m making the most of it. 

I was raised in a very loving family by two amazing parents who were Salvation Army officers, along with my brother and sister we were fortunate to be around giving our entire lives.  We did however move every 2-4 years as they were stationed in different cities all across the province.  In 1992 my father received the call that he was being transferred to Ottawa and this city was were my life changed forever.

In April 1994 I was outside of Bayshore Shopping Mall and got in to a heated argument with three guys (It’s been so long I don’t remember the cause or what started it) I remember one of the guys coming at me to punch me so I attempted to defend myself.  I remember the three of them swarming around me and then after about twenty seconds they all took off.  I started to walk away then I put my hand on my leg and looked at it.  The site of my hand covered in blood I fell to the ground in the mall parking lot.  I had been stabbed twice on my leg and nine times on my back.  I had a punctured lung and one knife wound I was told after missed my heart by ONE inch.  I remember a older lady holding my hand and she kept holding my hand in the ambulance right to the hospital. 

My muscle in my left leg was severely torn and major surgery was required, also to fix my lung that had been punctured.   When I woke up from surgery I asked where the lady was that was in the ambulance and no one had any clue what I was talking about.  You can think about that whatever you like I however feel it was someone looking out for me.

For almost four months I was laid up on a couch and had to learn how to walk all over again, because of this I put on a lot of weight which I never recovered from.  I had multiple doctors tell me I’d always have problems walking for the rest of my life.  For a lot of years I let that be my excuse to be lazy and continued to put on weight. After I recovered from the accident I wanted to pay it back so I would bring cans of Timmies coffee to fire halls and police stations whenever I would get the chance.  It was my small way of saying thank you.

Fast forward to 2007 and a very close friend of mine was serving with the Canadian Forces in Afghanistan and he was so excited because they were opening a Tim Hortons on the base for them.  I asked him if they had to pay for it and he said yes.  My reply was “Not Anymore”

I started a small Facebook group called Tim Hortons For Our Troops and asked people to send the paper certificates with a message of the thanks on the back of them.  Within a few days it had about 3000 members and was spreading like wildfire.  VOCM News in Newfoundland did a story on it and that’s when things went crazy.  I contacted the MFRC in Toronto and they gave out their address as a place where people could send them and they would have them delivered.   CITY NEWS in Toronto then picked this story up and within the first year we had sent over $100,000 in free coffee to soldiers with messages of support on the back of them.

I started to receive a lot of messages asking for Pen Pals from civilians which I gladly set people up with, this turned in to a new mission of it’s own and within a few months I had setup over 2000 people including ten elementary schools as pen pals with soldiers overseas.  We also introduced military families together, fellow soldiers with each other and most importantly families of fallen soldiers were meeting each other through this page to help each other grieve. 

In 2010 I decided to start “The Gratitude Project” which encouraged people to send a photo holding a Thank You sign and I would put them together in a YouTube video and do my best that our troops would see them.  Well we received enough photos to make ten YouTube videos from people from every corner of the world.  The biggest shock was opening my email inbox and seeing a photo from Gene Simmons and Shannon Tweed.

In 2013 after the severe floods in Calgary and High River, Alberta I asked people to come together to bring coffee to first responders in the area and the response was amazing.   In one day we delivered over $5000 worth of coffee to every fire hall in Calgary and High River.  We also had a property management company send $1000 in Tim Hortons cards which we decided to give out to people that had been forced to leave their homes to try and brighten their day a little.

When we visited some of the emergency centers in High River the fire fighters and RCMP officers politely turned it down and told us to bring the coffee outside to residents in the RV's in the parking lot as they could use the lift more than they could, I can't say I was shocked by this at all.

Since my incident in 1994 I have always tried to pay it back to those that saved my life that night and I felt pretty good about accomplishing that up to this point but this was just the beginning.  In 2018 I was at a park with our five year old daughter who was four at the time.   She wanted to race me home from the playground but I said "I’m sorry sweetie daddy can’t run” the look of disappointment in her face I will never forget as long as I live.  I met my beautiful wife in 2012 and in 2014 we were blessed with the birth of a beautiful daughter.  This was my reason I was spared that night in Ottawa to become a father and a husband.  These two are the greatest thing that ever happened to me and my number one reason for starting my weigh loss journey.  I want to be around when my daughter graduates and gets married way way way down the road.   They are my reason

I decided this was enough and promised myself I would lose 100lbs in 2019 one way or another.  I needed something to keep me motivated so I pledged online that I would donate $1 per pound that I lose in the year to Vets Canada.  A group I have worked very closely with over the years that gets homeless Veterans off the streets and assists Veterans that are struggling.   On November of 2019 I hit my 100 pound lost goal and several others matched my $100 donation.  In total we were able to raise $750.00 for this organization.    I wanted to keep going so I pledged that I would lose another 50lbs by the end of 2020 and donate the money to Canpraxis.  They’re a horse therapy program that assists Veterans and First Responders with PTSD with the use of horses.  This is were things changed.

Seven weeks ago I was on a CALGARY ROAST AND TOAST page and I posted a thank you to two guys who were making fun of me the first time I tried a gym about a year before.  I was on a exercise bike and two guys behind me on the treadmill I could hear them referring to the back of my neck as a package of sausages and laughing very loudly.  Those guys lit a fire under me although it messed me up for awhile it eventually was used as motivation.

I was contacted by the owners at Southpaw Boxing Gym in Calgary who saw my story and offered me a year membership and training to hit my goals.   Boxing has changed my life, after struggling with PTSD for 16 years from my incident this place has been a Godsend.  They are truly a family there and right from the owners to the trainers and all the members I have never had so much support in my life.

The owners told me about their “Chump To Champ” program and instantly I thought this could be my final way to pay it back to the first responders who saved my life.   I decided to join and will be having my first fight in April.  I started a Go Fund me page and will be splitting 100% of the donations between my two favourite charities Vets Canada and Canpraxis.  It was a fight that originally got me in to this situation and it will be a fight that will close the door on it for me.

With this fight I have access to a VIP table up front for people to support me, my plan is to have Steve Gillis from Vets Canada, Steve C the founder of Canpraxis, one fire fighter, one police officer,  my wife, and three Veterans at this table.  I am hoping to find a Calgary business that might want to sponsor the table to make this happen.  If you know anyone please contact me at murphyd@gmail.com

Five days ago I received a very special gift from someone I have respected and admired since 2007. Kevin is a retired firefighter from Ontario and he was a part of the Hero To Hero program that used to send fire fighter t-shirts to coalition forces overseas. It would bring them a little piece of home while they were away. Kevin had sent me a red Sarnia Fire Rescue short over ten years ago that had gotten lost and somewhere in my moves here in Calgary. Today I opened up a package from Kevin with several fire fighter shirts and this one I looked at last. I flooded up as it was a 911 firefighter tribute shirt that had sent by the mother of a fire fighter that died in 911. Robert Foti died in the south tower and his mom sent it to Kevin. Kevin wore the shirt when he did a stair climb in honour of 911 an he climbed 78 flights of stairs ( the highest any fire fighter reached on 911 before the towers collapsed) he was wearing all his bunker gear including S.C.B.A

He sent me a message that said

"I hope this shirt inspired you in all that you are doing"


I will be proudly wearing this to the ring for my fight in April

When my Go Fund Me page has completed I will be making the donations and sending tax receipts via the two charities to anyone that sponsors me in this fight.  I have always kept things 100% visible through my efforts and this will be no different.  

To the EMS and fire fighters who were on the scene 1994 thank you, to the doctors who worked on me in the emergency room thank you, to the Ottawa and Nepean police officers who worked on my case and eventually found the guys responsible for what happened to me thank you.

If you were inspired reading this feel free to share.

Thank You

Click here to sponsor me : Go Fund Me Page