Update

• The national care crisis has made it hard to organise my challenge. I am continuing to advertise for PAs to help me with this and my general care. Unfortunately, applications have been really rare.
  

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I'm 40 and have Cerebral Palsy. My disability affects my ability to walk, the use of my hands and my ability to talk as well as general control of all parts of my body. I use a wheelchair and require 24/7 support.

Sadly, I recently lost the person who had been the closest person to me in the last 24 years. Dawn Rogers, a woman who was my wife passed away in June 2021. While we lost touch in the last 3 years, I spent my entire adulthood with her not far from my thoughts. We went through college, national sports competitions, marriage, divorce, friendship, and did so much together. Dawn was an exceptionally determined woman who would never give up.

Dawn was born 3 months early and suffered from Cerebral Palsy, Spina Bifida, and other complex health problems. Dawn was a real ambassador for Conductive Education. She spent 10 years at The Peto Institute in Hungary followed by attending National Institute of Conductive Education in Birmingham. I cannot put into words how hard Dawn worked to learn to walk and refused to allow her disability to get in her way. Tragically all of her hard work over 15 years was undone in an incident at University in the 2000s, and Dawn struggled to overcome the injuries before her passing away.

As Dawn achieved something impossible, I will be doing something that many people think is impossible - a 5-Star Challenge consisting of 5 individual challenges. I'm planning on doing an abseil, a walk, cycling a bike, sailing my own boat, and a swim).

Furthermore, I'm thinking of doing it independently. I do not want to use a motorised vehicle, to be hoisted in a seat or to be driven by another person. While some adaptations are necessary, it's important to me that everything is done using my own power and ability.

I am hoping to do all of this in 2022 and this is to build on Dawn's legacy. 

www.facebook.com/groups/jk5star/

www.conductive-education.org.uk

Registered charity No. 295873

Company No. 2083754