Darke tale a real inspiration

May 19 2009 by Les Stewart, Perthshire Advertiser Tuesday

PARAPLEGIC adventurer Karen Darke will tell pupils at a Perthshire school about her incredible life next month.

“I’d always thought I’d rather be dead than paralysed,” she said. “One slip, one moment and everything changes...”

On Thursday, June 11, at 7.30pm, Karen will give a lecture at Kilgraston School, Bridge of Earn.

A keen runner and mountaineer before becoming paralysed in a rock-climbing accident in 1993, she is a truly remarkable woman, having achieved a series of challenges that most of us would never even attempt.

Karen’s traumatic fall from a Scottish sea cliff at the age of 21 changed the course of her life for ever.

Although she had said only the night before that she would rather die than be paralysed, Karen chose to fight preconceived ideas of just what was possible for someone who could feel nothing below their chest.

Just four years after her accident, Karen crossed the Tien Shan and Karakoram Mountains of Central Asia on a push bike.

This was to be the first of many adventures which would see Karen cycle the length of the Japanese archipelago, sea kayak a 1200-mile length of the Canada-Alaska coastline, cross the Indian Himalaya on her bike and make a record-breaking 600-kilometre crossing of the Greenland ice cap.

Karen’s captivating story begins with her accident and tracks her journey of recovery and acceptance through to her ever more daring series of adventures – finally leading her back to the rock face where she faced her fear head on and climbed to the summit of El Capitan in Yosemite after over 4000 pull-ups.

“What is life if it isn’t an adventure? Disabled is a state of mind not a state of body and I’m constantly amazed by what can be achieved if we set our heart and mind to it,” she explained.

“It’s all about finding belief, confidence, motivation and commitment. And, of course, friends. Then there are no limits.”

Karen is an extraordinary human being and a woman who has touched the lives of many through her spirit for adventure.

The lecture is open to the public.

Tickets cost £10 each and are available from Roderick Baird, Director of Development and PR, Kilgraston School, Bridge of Earn, Perth, PH2 9BQ.

Contact 01738 815535 or development@kilgraston.com

All profits will go to the Kilgraston Education Foundation.