Vernon-based Emily Dahl Foundation bringing renowned speaker Chris Lemons to town

Chris Lemons is bringing his 'Last Breath' to Vernon.

The Emily Dahl Foundation is bringing the renowned world speaker to the North Okanagan for his only Canadian stop.

Lemons will be the keynote speaker at The Vernon & District Performing Arts Centre Nov. 29.

The foundation is partnering with North Okanagan Hospice Society to bring Lemons to town.

Lemons' story of survival against all odds has been made into a Netflix documentary, Last Breath.

A North Sea diver, Lemons cheated death in September 2012, when a freak failure of the dynamic positioning system of the vessel he was working under, resulted in the umbilical which provides him with breathing gas, light and heat was severed.

He was left on the sea bed, in complete darkness, 100 metres below the surface, with only the five minutes of breathing gas he carried in the emergency tanks on his back, and no way to protect himself from the freezing temperatures.

But the miracle of his colleagues' superhuman efforts to save him, and his body lasting 35 minutes on a five-minute emergency air tank, saw him not only living to resume his diving job and marry his fiancee, but to suffer no ill effects from a lack of oxygen.

“My wife (Katie) and I were watching "Last Breath" on Netflix, and I was overwhelmed by the experience that Chris endured. This touched me deeply on another level. Losing my daughter Emily in 2019, when she took her own life, was for me - similar to a "Last Breath" experience,” said EDF founder Sherman Dahl.

“I simply had to speak to Chris, so I phoned him in Scotland. From there we did zoom calls and instantly became friends. I asked Chris to come to Vernon to speak for The Emily Dahl Foundation - and he said he would love to help The Emily Dahl Foundation and the Vernon Community.”

For ticket information, go to Ticket Seller.