Conversations with Mark Irwin

Today we’d like to introduce you to Mark Irwin.

Hi Mark, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I am a former bare knuckle boxing world champion and three time Hall of Fame award winner. But over the course of my career I incurred countless traumatic brain injuries. My coach and mentor, Ian McCall, founded a TBI research group but needed funding to get the research underway. After breaking my jaw and nose in the Fight of the Year award winner, I required surgery to recover and it was a long road back. As a result I decided to get more involved with coach Ian’s nonprofit and used the rematch of my big fight as a means to promote the nonprofit, using my Fight Organization(BKB Bare Knuckle Boxing) to promote the nonprofit in all the interviews and podcasts I did to promote the fight in the build up to it. As a thank you for all the blood sweat and tears I donated to the organization, putting on award winning fights, the President of the Organization, Mike Vasquez, wrote us a large check to fund our first research project and has continued to donate and fund our research. Our non profit provides psychedelic therapy for fighters and athletes with traumatic brain injuries and our scientific team does data collection before and after to measure the results and prove the effectiveness. And the results thus far have been unbelievable and life changing, including reversing symptoms of Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s in fighters and athletes exhibiting symptoms of those disorders. We have more research retreats planned to continue to help heal our community but we need funding and raising awareness helps us to do that so thank you for helping us to spread the message.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
It’s in a very long and difficult road but it’s been the most rewarding and fulfilling experiences I’ve ever had and this work is my true calling

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
We had held three psychedelic retreats thus far and have sponsored the retreat of all the athletes that have come thru our organization. I’m very proud of the results we have achieved thus far and how much we have been able to help the athletes we have worked with, alleviating them of symptoms that were thought to be incurable

What matters most to you? Why?
Getting the funding we need to help as many people as possible and proving thru the data we collect in the research we do the medical and therapeutic benefits of these treatments so that we can help change the outdated, antiquated and draconian laws that currently govern psychedelics in America and elsewhere.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://athletesjourneyhome.com
• Instagram: mark_the_shark_irwin
• Facebook: Mark Irwin
• Other: Athletes Journey Home Podcast on Spotify