{"alias":"blogEntry","byline":"Darren Edwards","standfirst":"Darren Edwards, a proud Scout when he was younger, is now one of the UK\u2019s leading adventurers. He was part of the first ever team to kayak from Land\u2019s End to John O\u2019Groats, and later completed seven marathons on seven continents in seven days. What makes him even more remarkable is that he did all this after surviving a climbing accident when he was 26, which left him paralysed from the chest down.","content":{"layouts":[{"type":"singleColumn","areas":[{"items":[{"gridType":"RichTextBlock","content":"\u003Cp\u003EWhen my family moved to Shropshire when I was 12, I found myself at the village Scout Troop. I fell in love with everything that Scouts did: fire-making, bushcraft, going out on the hills, walking and navigating. This led to lifelong love of adventure.\u003C/p\u003E","gtmId":"","gtmClass":""},{"gridType":"gridImageBlock","gtmId":"","gtmClass":"","image":"/media/0ysbexxo/darren-edwards-climbing-mont-blanc.jpg","width":3864,"height":2576,"altText":"Darren is walking along a snowy mountainside. The camera is behind him as he walks uphill. There are other mountains to the right of him and the sky is bright blue.","caption":"","link":null},{"gridType":"RichTextBlock","content":"\u003Ch4\u003EThe day everything changed\u003C/h4\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EWhen I was 26, I experienced a life-changing accident when my best friend, Matt, and I were climbing a 250ft rock face called World\u2019s End (of all things) just inside \u003Ca rel=\u0022noopener\u0022 href=\u0022https://snowdonia.gov.wales/\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022\u003ESnowdonia National Park\u003C/a\u003E.\u003C/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EWe were standing on a six-foot-wide ledge with one final section to go. I started climbing up the final 40ft vertical crack \u2013 that ran like a fissure through the rockface.\u003C/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EAs I looked down, I turned, and something about the shift of my weight beneath my feet caused the rock to almost instantly collapse beneath me.\u003C/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EThe first thing I heard was a crack. The second thing I felt was a slight shift beneath my feet, and a millisecond later, this chunk of World\u2019s End had fallen off and taken me with it.\u003C/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EI continued to tumble and was about to slip off when I felt a weight on top of my chest. Matt had thrown himself on top of me to stop my body from rolling off and falling to my death. He pulled me back from the drop and saved my life.\u003C/p\u003E","gtmId":"","gtmClass":""},{"gridType":"RichTextBlock","content":"\u003Ch4\u003EGetting through rehab\u003C/h4\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EI was seriously injured. Rehab lasted for five months, starting in intensive care. I\u2019d severed my spinal cord, which was hard to hear, since adventure was a massive part of my identity.\u003C/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EI spent those five months looking for people who were like me, but had gone on to do incredible, adventurous things. I was inspired by Karen Darke who\u2019d been on a similar journey, learning to adapt her approach to adventure after a life changing injury.\u003C/p\u003E","gtmId":"","gtmClass":""},{"quoteText":"Scouts was the reason I adapted from being an inner-city boy, to an adolescent and ultimately an adult that thrived most when I was outside, doing something challenging, with that sense of community. ","attribution":"Darren","gridType":"quote","gtmId":"","gtmClass":""},{"gridType":"gridImageBlock","gtmId":"","gtmClass":"","image":"/media/ek5d2nut/darren-edwards-kayaking.jpg","width":6283,"height":4189,"altText":"Darren is sat in a kayak on a body of water. He\u0027s looking at the camera and is wearing a cap, blue jacket and red life jacket.","caption":"","link":null},{"gridType":"RichTextBlock","content":"\u003Ch4\u003ELands End to John O\u2019Groats by kayak\u003C/h4\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EI learned to fail and persevere when I started kayaking. I joined the Paralympic Kayaking Team in Nottingham and it gave me a sense of purpose (although I was as wet as often as I was dry).\u003C/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EAlthough I didn\u2019t make the team that ultimately went to the Paralympic Games, I came up with the idea of kayaking from Land\u2019s End to John O\u2019Groats, a first for anyone \u2013 able bodied or not.\u003C/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EOver 26 days, we battled through wind, waves and tides. We did it as people with life changing injuries who\u2019d been told this was never going to work, but we were determined to redefine what people called impossible.\u003C/p\u003E","gtmId":"","gtmClass":""},{"gridType":"RichTextBlock","content":"\u003Ch4\u003EThe Seven Marathon Challenge\u003C/h4\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003ESoon after, I accepted a challenge to complete seven marathons on seven continents in seven consecutive days in just 10 months\u2019 time. It was 168 miles in 182 hours.\u003C/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EWe began in Antarctica. It was -27C, the wind speed was 60 miles per hour, and we only had six hours to complete the marathon. The first marathon took me 5 hours 50 minutes, and I was so relieved to finish in time. No one had ever done it before in a wheelchair.\u003C/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EThen, we were back on the plane, straight onto Cape Town in South Africa. We went from -27C to 30C, and started the second marathon just 12 hours after the first.\u003C/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003ENext was Perth, then to Dubai, and from Dubai to Madrid \u2013 where the pot-holes and speed bumps caused no end of trouble. Then onto Brazil in blistering 46C heat.\u003C/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EOur final marathon took place in Miami and there were just 26 miles separating us from completing the challenge. I finished at 5.30am, utterly exhausted as I crossed the finish line.\u003C/p\u003E","gtmId":"","gtmClass":""},{"gridType":"gridImageBlock","gtmId":"","gtmClass":"","image":"/media/uo2dc5v2/darren-edwards-completing-marathon.jpeg","width":1280,"height":720,"altText":"Darren is sat down on snow, wearing a winter outdoor gear. He\u0027s holding poles and the camera is taking the photo side on.","caption":"","link":null},{"gridType":"RichTextBlock","content":"\u003Ch4\u003EHelping others\u003C/h4\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EShortly after, I was proud to launch my charity, \u003Ca rel=\u0022noopener\u0022 href=\u0022https://adaptiveexpeditions.co.uk/\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022\u003EAdaptive Expeditions\u003C/a\u003E, to offer adventurous activities for people with disabilities.\u003C/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EOne great moment was when Karen Darke came and paddled with us for the day in Scotland.\u003C/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EThe best advice I\u2019ve heard for anyone who goes through a life changing moment is: \u2018Persevere; keep moving forward with determination and never lose sight of what you want to become.\u2019\u003C/p\u003E","gtmId":"","gtmClass":""},{"type":"Promo","cta":"","body":"\u003Cp\u003EYou can find out more about Darren Edwards by \u003Ca rel=\u0022noopener\u0022 href=\u0022https://darrenedwardsspeaker.com/\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022\u003Evisiting his website\u003C/a\u003E.\u003C/p\u003E","link":null,"colour":"#f1f1f1","title":"","image":null,"imageFocus":"","imageId":0,"imageKey":"00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000","imageCrop":"","gridType":"card","gtmId":"","gtmClass":""}]}],"config":null}]},"searchDescription":null,"pageType":null,"location":null,"versionDate":"18 October 2024","reviewDate":null,"furtherReading":[{"caption":"","title":"Find out more about Darren and his story","url":"https://darrenedwardsspeaker.com/","newWindow":false}],"relatedLinks":[],"id":81791,"nodeName":"Reinventing adventure: Darren\u2019s story","title":"Reinventing adventure: Darren\u2019s story","type":"blogEntry","image":{"url":"/media/0ysbexxo/darren-edwards-climbing-mont-blanc.jpg?width=800\u0026height=450\u0026v=1db2136bb77c1e0","caption":"Darren Edwards Climbing Mont Blanc","type":"jpg","size":4964714,"width":3864,"height":2576,"altText":""},"assets":null,"headerOptions":{"headerTitle":"Reinventing adventure: Darren\u2019s story","headerSubTitle":null,"headerCta":null,"headerCtaText":null,"headerCtaLink":null,"headerBackgroundColour":null,"showSEOImage":false,"headerBackgroundImage":null,"quickLinks":null},"subHeader":"Once a proud Scout, Darren is now a leading UK adventurer. He\u0027s achieved incredible things, even after a life-changing accident.","browserTitle":null,"silktide":"eyJjbXMiOiJVbWJyYWNvIiwiZWRpdG9yVXJsIjoiaHR0cHM6Ly9wcm9kLWNtcy5zY291dHMub3JnLnVrLy91bWJyYWNvIy9jb250ZW50L2NvbnRlbnQvZWRpdC84MTc5MSJ9","canonicalUrl":"https://www.scouts.org.uk/news/2024/october/reinventing-adventure-darren-s-story/"}