I am the only child of Sue and Stephen Goody. My father is a member of the Rotary Club of Onchan.
I grew up in the UK. I attended school at Stoke-by-Nayland Middle School and Great Cornard Upper School and after obtaining a National Diploma in Agriculture at Otley College at the age of 20 I started up my own business as a sheep farmer on the family farm in the UK. On moving to the Isle of Man in 2001 I continued farming at Old Lonan Church Farm and bought more sheep and cattle. Over the years I have developed a small contracting business making silage for other farmers as well as a paddock management for horse owners using quad bikes to do harrow, roll and fertilize the fields. I also have a successful and ever expanding livery yard were we accommodate 12 horses on a Do It Yourself basis with outdoor arena and indoor stable blocks.
I am very much outgoing and independent. I have a genuine passion for conservation and want to make a difference in this world. After nearly 20 years in farming and running my own business I now wish to dedicate my time to making that difference. I am the Founder/Chairman of Thandi’s Endan-gered Species Association. I originally started up an organisation back in June 2012 called Thandi’s Fund Raiser after my experiences at Kariega Game Reserve early that year when they had their rhinos poached for their horn. I was there as a volunteer and was able to assist the Kariega team and vet Dr William Fowlds on the rhino’s treatments. It was an experience that changed my life and vowed to help raise awareness and raise some funds to help with Thandi’s continued treatments. Since then the non-profit organisation has donated over £17,000 to rhino conservation. I decided to progress further I would register as a charity and thus founding Thandi’s Endangered Species Association TESA. TESA is now an Isle of Man registered charity and our goal is still the same to continue with the protection of Endangered Species worldwide.
In March 2014 I was involved with the collaring, DNA, Micro Chipping and Ear Notching of Black Rhino on a reserve in the Eastern Cape. This project was funded by Thandi’s Fund Raiser to a Black Rhino Project. Since then I have been based on another reserve in the Eastern Cape where I have been helping to start up an Anti-Poaching unit and monitoring their rhinos on a daily basis. This is an ongoing project and it is hoped to start compiling a DNA data base and increase the rhino population on this reserve.
As a volunteer at Shamwari Game Reserve in 2013/4 we were able to get involved with day to day conservation activities from road packing to bush clearing from monitoring to game capture. I personally helped Konrad Muller with his Brown Hyena Project that he was doing for his Masters. I spent nearly a month camping out on the reserve at night trying to capture brown hyena. We had two successful captures whilst I was there and we were able to sedate, GPS Collar and take vital measurements to help with his studies. In total 5 hyenas have been collared and data collected with other students.
The experiences were absolutely amazing and I have gained a lot of knowledge about the African Bush and hence I have since done my FGASA Level 1 ranger training.
I was also a boat hand in Great White Shark research.