By Darren Edwards knows a lot about hopelessness; one minute, he was rock climbing in North Wales about to finish his route, and the next, he was in the hospital paralyzed from the chest down with a severe spinal cord injury, having fallen more than 100 feet.
“I remember what it was like being in hospital, being told that I’d never walk again. Being told that suddenly you have a spinal cord injury and you have no idea what a spinal cord injury is,” he tells CNN Sport.
Not long after his accident in 2016, Edwards’ girlfriend at the time ended their relationship, and following months of surgery, intensive care and rehabilitation, he found his life had changed drastically.
“I remember not being able to find people that I could take hope from and people that had shown that what life was like after an injury wasn’t all negative,” he explains.
But since his accident, Edwards has dedicated his life to exploration, already completing more physically demanding challenges than most do in a lifetime.
A disabled adventurer, he has completed seven marathons on seven continents over seven days; at the end of this year, he aims to ski 207 miles in 20 days across Antarctica to the South Pole.
Edwards will be using a sit-ski – “a wheelchair without wheels” – which involves using poles to propel himself forward for roughly 12 hours a day.
Aside from the skiing, the journey with two friends will be challenging in other ways: he will be setting up camp on the snow, melting ice for water and will need to ensure he doesn’t develop frostbite, especially on the parts of his body he can’t feel.
Temperatures will be around -4 degrees Fahrenheit (-20 degrees Celsius), and there is the added risk of high winds, altitude sickness, exhaustion, snowstorms and crevasses.
Nine years on from his life-altering brush with death, Edwards wants to inspire others through his exploits, on top of raising around $400,000 (£300,000) for people with spinal cord injuries with his Antarctica challenge.
“I’m not someone that cares about being able to say that I was the first or the furthest or the fastest – I’ve not done a single expedition or adventure for that accolade. It comes from a place inside and from a desire to push the boundaries for myself,” he explains to CNN.
“I take a lot of pride in thinking that what I do today and what I do tomorrow will help to show someone going through that right now, (when) it’s raw and it’s hurtful, there – in the darkest moment – there is light at the end of the tunnel and that there is hope for the future,” he adds.
Friendship is central to Edwards’ life, and he credits his best friend Matt Luxton’s quick thinking for saving his life on the day of his accident. As Edwards fell to the ground, Luxton made a split-second decision to jump on top of his climbing partner, ensuring that they both fell on a ledge instead of Edwards plummeting off the rockface.
Before his accident, the 34-year-old was fit, active and loved being in the mountains. Soon after, he wanted to work towards new adventures and challenges.
“I took for granted that tomorrow I could walk up a mountain or go for a run up a hill, and I didn’t really savor those moments,” Edwards says.
“And then coming out of hospital and having to start at square one, you know, the real basics of trying and learning to kayak over and over and over again … I learned to celebrate the little wins. You know, if I could get one meter further into the lake before falling in, that was a huge win.”
He also says that he is grateful to his friends and family for helping him to achieve his goals, highlighting the importance of teamwork in his adventures.
“I’ve been surrounded by people that have empowered me, have encouraged me to think bigger,” Edwards explains. “When I said I want to buy a kayak and learn to kayak, they didn’t say no. They said, ‘Okay, let’s see how we make it possible.’”
In 2023, Edwards was part of a three-person fully disabled team skiing across Vatnajökull, Europe’s largest icecap in Iceland – something which inspired his upcoming expedition in Antarctica.
“It was midway through that expedition that I realized that for the first time in seven years, I was back in the mountains, I was back on snow, I was back on the ice, and I really felt like I’d sort of found a piece of myself that I’d lost,” Edwards says.
“I’ve learned to take a step back and to look at life and all of the great things in gratitude once more. And I think I’ve also learned to chase the dream, and whether that ends in failure or success, there is a kind of meaning in both. And there is a lesson to be learned and a future beyond.”
