Sport &

Endurance Athletes

KAREN DARKE.

“AN EXCELLENT SPEECH AND ONE WHICH LEFT MYSELF AND, JUDGING BY THE COMMENTS AFTERWARDS, OTHERS, FEELING IN AWE, MOTIVATED AND INSPIRED

BY YOUR ACHIEVEMENTS.” Damian Hughes, HR Operations Manager, Unilever

At the age of just twenty-one, Karen Darke was paralysed in a rock-climbing accident on a Scottish sea cliff. Facing a life in a wheelchair, Karen chose to fight preconceived ideas of just what was possible for someone who could feel nothing below their chest. She hasn’t looked back since.

In 1997, just four years after her accident, Karen crossed the Tien Shan and Karakoram mountains of Central Asia on a hand bike, raising £12000 for charity. This amazing achievement was to be the first of many adventures which would see Karen hand cycle the length of the Japanese archipelago, sea kayak a 1200 mile length of the Canada – Alaska coastline, cross the Indian Himalaya by hand cycle and ski the Valle Blanche in the Alps.

KEY THEMES Motivation | Goal-setting | Overcoming Obstacles

In the last 5 years, Karen has continued to push herself, making a record-breaking 600-kilometre crossing of the Greenland ice cap on a sit-ski and returning to the rock face climbing to the summit of El Capitan in Yosemite after pulling her own body up using just her arms in over 4000 pull-ups.

Since climbing El Capitan, Karen has focused on her para-cycling, training hard to become one of the UK’s leading para-cyclists. She has been selected to represent Team GB at the London 2012 Paralympics.

Karen has received considerable recognition for her achievements, and in 2010 she received the Vitalise Woman of Achievement Award. She is one of the UK’s most inspirational women and a highly sought after motivational speaker.

www.speakersfromtheedge.com 23