The Climb
In September 2022 I climbed Snowdon in a wheelchair. 3,560 feet of ascent. I tore my rotator cuff in the first mile and kept going.
At the time, I was ending my 19th year as a full-time wheelchair user. Snowdon was not a rehabilitation milestone or a symbolic gesture. It was a fundraising challenge undertaken in genuinely adverse conditions, on a mountain, in a wheelchair, with a body carrying the full diagnostic profile detailed on the About Me page.
The rotator cuff tore early. The decision to continue was not heroic — it was practical. I have lived with constant severe pain since age three. A rotator cuff injury in the first mile of a mountain climb is noise, not signal. I filtered it accordingly and continued.
The Team
Pulling Together Up Snowdon was a team effort. The principle throughout was the same one that governs Wheels for Tenacious: disabled and non-disabled participants sharing the same challenge, the same conditions, and the same finish. No separate categories. No reduced expectations.
The team raised £20,100 for charity.
What Came Next
Twelve months after this, I rode 197 miles on a bike. The Snowdon climb is the last documented evidence of me as a full-time wheelchair user. Three months after it, I started rebuilding my leg muscles. Six months after it, I rode 54 miles from London to Brighton.
September 2022: wheelchair, 3,560 feet, torn rotator cuff, £20,100. September 2023: 197 miles, Great Yarmouth to London. That is the sequence.