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(Far left - Pete Speller)

Having grown up with Buddhist parents, Tibet has always been part of my life. I first heard about the invasion from my parents' friend Chime Rinpoche when I was maybe 5/6 years old. As I got older I learned more about Tibet and when I heard my sister had started a campaigning group for Tibet at university it seemed the obvious next step to join. I tried to start a group at sixth form but The Man wouldn't let me in case I offended any Chinese students. So to stick two fingers up at The Man I proceeded to reference Tibet in as much of my photography work as possible (I was studying photography A-Level and our work was regularly displayed). In 2004 I travelled to Tibet with my friend from sixth-form, former SFT UK board member and Beijing Olympics action veteran Lucy Fairbrother and new board member and long time SFTer Luke Ward. At university I founded a proper SFT chapter and joined the Board in 2005. Since joining the board I have served as part of the campaigns team and as the National Coordinator. I have taken part in two major high-profile direct actions for SFT, as a tech (sexy-ninja-geek style) for the banner drop from the Great Wall in August 2007 and as a climber for the banner drop on Westminster Bridge in April 2008 as well as numerous smaller actions in the UK.

So after 6 or 7 years as part of SFT UK, 4 of which on the Board of Directors, I find myself wondering what to say. SFT has changed my life probably in more ways than even I will ever really know and I hope that, for my part, I have helped to bring Tibet closer to freedom. Jigdal asked me to write something for the SFT blog after I wrote a fairly self-indulgent goodbye email to the SFT UK Board and the New York HQ, but that doesn't really seem right to share here. I could write about the numerous stories from my time with SFT; sitting in a service station on the M4 between Cardiff and Swansea with Namdrol Lhamo and Gyaltsen Drolkar, two of the Drapchi Nuns, thinking about how English I felt after being disgusted at the amount of salt they put in their tea. Or I could write about lying under a plastic sheet on a hill opposite the Great Wall of China soaked to the bone in the biggest thunder storm I have ever experienced with lightning hitting trees mere yards behind me surrounded by electronics Skyping with Han and Nathan in NY. But again that doesn't really seem to be right either.

Campaigning for Tibetan independence is hard work. Every day China seems bigger and more powerful than the day before. If this were a numbers game, we would lose; there are almost certainly more people just in the Chinese Communist Party than there are Tibetans and supporters in the world. But this is not a numbers game, and that's what counts. We may be small but we know how to hurt the CCP. We know where the chinks in their armor are and more importantly we know how to exploit them.

I have yet to come across a movement with so many people willing to give up so much time and put their lives on the line in the way SFT's supporters have and will again. With this kind of support behind us I know Tibet's freedom is not an unachievable pipe-dream but an inexorable truth. Bhod Rangzen!

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