Don't Just Exist.

Life Is Too Precious To Waste.

I grew up in a house where moaning didn’t last long. If we scraped a knee or lost a match Mum would nod and ask, “How can you turn this into a positive?”- lesson over, back outside we went. My parents lived that way themselves. In 2001 they sold almost everything, packed four kids, and moved us to India and Sri Lanka so we could taste new colours, new languages, new ways of being alive Robert Forkan. That early jol - push the door, meet the world - set my compass for good. When the tsunami took Mum and Dad three years later, the mantra became my lifeline. Sitting on a ruined road I repeated it until the words felt true: They died together. We’re still breathing. We can get to safety. The sentence didn’t ease the pain, but it gave it direction. Meaning is fuel; with enough of it you’ll keep walking, even barefoot.

Turning Loss Into Legacy.

Back in the UK I needed a project big enough to honour them. That became Gandys: flip-flops first, kids’ campuses second. We decided 10 % of profits would build safe spaces for children who started life with less than we had Robert Forkan. The first campus went up in Sri Lanka; more followed. Purpose proved a better energy drink than any spreadsheet.

Today the engine is Exist With Purpose, a charity focused on the same idea: don’t waste the days we’re given, use them to lift someone else. The phrase “Don’t Just Exist” sits on the masthead because it still drags me out the door.

---

What Don't Just Exist Means To Me.

• Travel – not holiday snaps, but crossing the street to meet a stranger, learning why they see the world the way they do.

• Curiosity over comfort – saying yes to the odd route, the harder climb, the new city.

• Legacy as deadline – remembering I’ve only got one ticket, so each choice either adds colour or dulls it.

  
  

What Don't Just Exist Can Mean To You.

Your version might look nothing like mine. It could be:

• Training for a 10 k.

• Taking your daughter to her first match at the Camp Nou.

• Learning to paint bluebells just because they make you grin.

• Starting a side-hustle that funds a trip, or a classroom, or a dream you haven’t named yet.

  
  

The point is choice. Happiness rarely arrives unannounced- you have to spot it, sometimes build it from scraps. The good news: every small decision stacks up. One bold email, one early alarm, one plane ticket, one “yes” to the unfamiliar. String enough of those together and a life with texture appears.

---

One Life, Lived Well With No Regrets.

I keep a note on my phone that simply reads: One life. Make it tell a story. It nudges me when comfort starts whispering. If today’s chapter feels thin, I add something: a call to a mate, a walk somewhere green, a plan for the next campus. Small moves, steady direction.

So that’s the root of Don’t Just Exist. It’s a handshake from my parents, a nudge to myself, and an invitation to anyone who wants to swap autopilot for intent. Whatever your DJE looks like, make it yours - and start writing it today.