Jonny Beardmore hand-delivers postcards he found in a 200-year-old unserviced mailbox in the Galapagos islands.
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00:00Johnny Beardmore traveled the world to hand deliver 50 postcards he found in an unserviced mailbox in the Galapagos Islands to their unsuspecting recipients.
00:10All in the name of charity, the 51-year-old raised money for motor neuron disease in honor of his late father who lost his battle with MND in 2022.
00:21Hello, my name is Johnny Beardmore and I'm the Galapagos Postman and I've bought you a letter.
00:25Affectionately nicknamed the Galapagos Postman, Johnny traveled to Antarctica, North, South and Central America, as well as multiple countries in Europe before landing here in Qatar to deliver his 33rd letter.
00:43Hello, mate. Nice to meet you, mate.
00:45Hey, Johnny. Welcome to Doha.
00:46Yeah, got a postcard for you.
00:48You brought it all the way from the Galapagos Islands.
00:49Absolutely.
00:50All right, I want to hear the story.
00:51Sure, let's go.
00:52Mission accomplished, Johnny.
00:55You successfully delivered a postcard you found in the Galapagos Islands all the way here into Doha's Westway, right across the water from us.
01:03Certainly there are better ways to make friends, Johnny.
01:06Why are you doing this?
01:06I think it really comes down to this just innate curiosity and wonderlust that I have for the world.
01:12You know, I grew up in New Zealand, which is miles away from anywhere.
01:17I wanted to, you know, explore the world.
01:19I've done many different sort of trips in the past, and I've discovered this, you know, passion for adventure and travel and exploration and doing journeys that have a purpose and a human connection to them.
01:31And so I was in the Galapagos.
01:33I came across the Galapagos post box, and I collected a couple of letters, and I delivered them back to the UK, and it was an amazing experience.
01:42So it gave me this idea, I think, what if I did this on a grander scale?
01:47So I went back, I collected 50 letters with no idea where I was going.
01:52I've been heading off around the world.
01:55Arrived here in Doha a couple of days ago specifically to deliver a letter over at West Bay to a chap called Ian.
02:01And so last night I rocked up, you know, no attempts to contact him in advance.
02:08Knocked on the door, and he opened, and I said, here you go, mate.
02:12My name is Johnny Beard.
02:13I'm the Galapagos postman, and I bought you a letter.
02:17And he was a bit shocked initially, but he recognised the letter because he'd actually written it to himself.
02:24And he was just curious to see whether or not it would make it back.
02:27And so he invited me in, and we had a great chat and shared a few details.
02:31He's a neurosurgeon from the UK that has been here for five years.
02:35And I now have a new friend here in Doha.
02:38Now, the Galapagos Islands are known for their beautiful landscapes, for the giant tortoises,
02:43but also this 200-year-old post box.
02:46Tell us about that story.
02:47As far as I know, since 1793, the story goes back to that there's a post box that was set up there
02:53by sailors and whalers wanting to help get mail back to their friends and family
02:59when they're away on multi-year sort of voyages.
03:01A lot of the people that are travelling to the Galapagos are, you know,
03:04curious, adventurous people that are going with means, right?
03:08And they're handwriting letters, which is almost a lost art now.
03:12And they're often personal messages to either themselves or to their friends and their family,
03:18and they're all carrying a unique story about them.
03:20So it's a fascinating insight to a unique piece of the world.
03:25Now, this journey is inspired by your late father.
03:27Tell us about that.
03:28My father, unfortunately, passed away in October of 22.
03:32He suffered from motor neurone disease.
03:34It's a disease that attacks your bodily functions.
03:37You lose the ability to walk, to talk, to eat, and you get trapped in your own body
03:43where your brain is the only thing that still works 100%.
03:46And so when he did pass, I knew I wanted to go off on a new big adventure with him in mind
03:53and using him as an inspiration to raise awareness for motor neurone sufferers around the world
04:00and to hopefully raise a bit of funds as well.
04:03What do you think he'd say about your mission?
04:05He would no longer be surprised.
04:07He once told me, he goes,
04:09Johnny, the things you do never surprise me anymore.
04:11So I took that as a bit of a badge of honor.
04:14And now I'm always out there trying to do something more crazy and bigger and inventive.
04:17And he'd be cheering from the sidelines for sure.
04:21Now, traveling isn't cheap, let alone across continents.
04:24How are you funding this globetrotting mission?
04:26I've been working while I'm traveling.
04:29I'm a commercial storyteller.
04:31And I'm also using other unique inventive ways such as air miles to keep my flight prices down,
04:37staying with friends and family that I've known around the world,
04:39and looking for cheap deals everywhere I can.
04:44Toronto.
04:45I'm in downtown Toronto and I'm here to deliver a letter to the Lim family.
04:51Johnny, tell us a bit more about yourself.
04:53Obviously, your love for your dad is what's driving you,
04:56but someone else may have been satisfied with one or two successful deliveries.
04:59What is it about Johnny Beardmore that keeps you going?
05:01Look, it's that sense of adventure, you know, meeting new people and taking on a big challenge.
05:06You know, I'm trying to, you know, inspire people and reconnect the world one letter at a time.
05:12Through what I'm doing here, I want to try and get people out of their sort of funk, you know,
05:16try and encourage people to reconnect, you know, with their friends and their family face to face.
05:22You know, and I'm trying to raise a little bit of money and awareness as well.
05:25So I've got, you know, letting people know the story of MMD and what people suffer.
05:30So, you know, it's a human connection issue, right?
05:32What I do here, being able to speak and to be able to travel and to move, is what an MMD sufferer loses.
05:37I've got fundraising platforms that I'm trying to raise money in New Zealand and the UK
05:41and encourage people to donate around the world as well.
05:44Now, you've traveled the world.
05:46Tell us about one of your most favorite delivery experiences.
05:49Sure. I think my favorite one is in Mexico City.
05:54Mexico delivery was unique in that it was a letter from a daughter to her mother,
05:59thanking her for helping her to follow her dreams.
06:02And I was like, oh, this is curious.
06:03And when we got to deliver, you know, in northern Mexico City, it just looked nondescript.
06:09It didn't look like a flashy building or anything like that.
06:12We knocked on the door and nobody came.
06:14We got a neighbor eventually to go.
06:16And I had a friend who there was translating and speaking Spanish for me.
06:20So I was just watching it all unfold.
06:22And eventually a girl came down and knocked on the door and we said, look, we're here to see a delivery letter for Carmen.
06:28Is Carmen here?
06:28And she's like, no, no Carmen.
06:30And we looked, the face was not looking good.
06:33And eventually we then, we showed her the postcard.
06:36And she had, her face literally changed over instantly from one of skepticism to joy.
06:43Because she had written that letter for her mom, who was upstairs, who was having a doctor's appointment because she had fallen and had a hip replacement.
06:50And it had happened when she was out in the Galapagos on a placement, volunteering, following her dream in the science field.
06:58And she had written this letter and her mom had said, no, stay there, finish.
07:02I'll be okay.
07:03Come back when you're done.
07:04And there was letters thanking her for helping her to follow her dreams.
07:07So it led to an amazing evening of chats and stories.
07:10And we're now still very close.
07:12Now I've got to ask you, what's next for you?
07:14Obviously, going back to your day job is going to be probably a little boring or tedious.
07:18Do you think from now on you're just going to be known as Johnny the Galapagos Postman forever?
07:23Probably.
07:24You know, many of the adventures I do tend to stick in some sort of way.
07:28But I don't know.
07:29For me, I can travel the world now.
07:31This has really been a test.
07:32Could I work as a digital nomad and work and earn money and do adventures at the same time?
07:37And so far I'm managing it.
07:39So I'm hoping really that I'll be able to continue traveling, continue exploring the world, continue telling stories,
07:45and hopefully bring a little bit of joy to people while earning a crust.
07:49Hey, Johnny, you got some more deliveries to do?
07:51Thank you so much for joining us on The Dialogue and best of luck with the mission.
07:54Cheers, mate.
07:55Thanks very much.
07:55Thanks for having me.