I am a 67-year-old Icelandic orthopaedic surgeon, a father of five, and I have taken many different paths throughout my life. Most of them have been rewarding, some have been difficult, but experience has taught me that life is not measured by setbacks or victories, but by what we learn from them.

After finishing secondary school, I set off to explore the world. For almost two years, I travelled extensively, mostly on my own, although I also worked as a tour guide in Bulgaria during the communist era. When I returned home, life took an unexpected turn. Despite having no conventional background in the natural sciences, I decided to study medicine.

After graduating, I was immediately drawn to accident and emergency medicine. I worked as a specialist in the Emergency Department at Landspítali University Hospital for around a decade, taking on challenges that suited both my temperament and my interests, with no two days ever being the same.

Alongside my hospital work, I helped develop pre-hospital emergency services in Iceland. I served as a physician on the Icelandic Coast Guard rescue helicopter for five years, worked aboard the Coast Guard vessel Óðinn in the Smutthullet fishing grounds north of Norway, and led medical assistance teams from Landspítali University Hospital during the avalanches in the Westfjords in 1995. I also taught shipmasters emergency medical care and produced instructional videos that were distributed to every vessel in Iceland.

In 1997, my career took another direction when I was given the opportunity to develop a new service in musculoskeletal medicine. There I developed the concept that became Orkuhúsið, now Iceland's largest integrated musculoskeletal centre. I led the organisation until 2017, after which I co-managed a spine and pain centre until retiring from clinical management.

Alongside this work, I have spent decades carrying out disability assessments following accidents, giving me the privilege of becoming acquainted with the life stories of countless individuals.

Throughout my life, I have had an unwavering interest in regular physical activity. As a young man, I played football, later practised martial arts, and throughout most of my adult life I have continued strength training, cardiovascular exercise and flexibility training. Swimming has always held a special place for me, as has nature.

In recent years, I have spent countless hours at my summer house, where the silence, the forest and the companionship of my dog remind me every day that good health is about far more than exercise alone.

As I approached retirement age, I began to ask myself why so little attention was being paid to men's health in the later stages of life.

That question became the foundation of Nordic Wolves.

Since older men are sometimes playfully referred to as grey wolves, the connection seemed rather fitting.