Five Times I Should Have Died.
Today, I Walk.
They told me I would never walk again. They told me to prepare for a different life. But they didn't account for one thing: the stubborn refusal to give up.
The Injury
A freak accident. A spinal cord injury that instantly severed my connection to my legs. The silence of the ward was the loudest thing I'd ever heard.
The Sepsis
Just as hope flickered, sepsis struck. My body turned against itself. Five times the doctors prepared my family for the worst. Five times I fought back.
The Choice
Lying in that hospital bed, I had a choice. I could let the injury define me, or I could define my recovery. I chose the latter. It started with a toe wiggle. Then a knee twitch. Then, painfully, slowly, millimetre by millimetre, movement returned.
The road wasn't linear. There were days of despair, days where the pain was blinding. But there was also laughter, friendship, and the growing realization that the human body is capable of miracles if the mind refuses to yield.
Standing tall against the odds.
Why Snowdon?
Snowdon isn't the highest mountain in the world, but for a walking paraplegic, it might as well be Everest. The uneven terrain, the ascent, the endurance required—it is the ultimate test of how far I've come.
I'm climbing for the version of me that lay in that bed, unable to move. I'm climbing for everyone who has been told "you can't." And I'm climbing to raise money so others can find their own mountains to conquer.