He had challenged himself to climb to the top of Kilimanjaro, and he succeeded on June 13, after five days and 72 kilometers of ascent, despite his paraplegia, despite his wheelchair, since that is how Martin Hibbert, 45, made the climb, five years after the terrorist attack that killed 22 people at the Manchester Arena on May 22, 2017. That evening he had just left the Ariana concert Great when he found himself five meters from the terrorist who activated his explosive belt. Twenty-two shrapnel pierced his body, the doctors took 14 hours to operate on him, after which he learned that he would never walk again. His spinal cord has been affected, his legs no longer respond.
Martin Hibbert has reached the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro in a specially modified wheelchair.
Five years after being paralyzed in the Manchester Arena attack #BBCBreakfast was with him, as he took on this mammoth challenge ⬇️https://t.co/R4CyzQzD5f pic.twitter.com/qzbTkvx2xs
— BBC Breakfast (@BBCBreakfast) June 13, 2022
“But what I’ve struggled against the mosthe told the BBC, it’s not my physical state, it’s this nagging question: why did I survive? Why me ? Everyone in the area of the blast is dead, so why me? And then I said to myself that it was necessary to go beyond this why and to give a meaning to my survival, a usefulness, and the usefulness is to contribute to changing mentalities on disability..”
Martin Hibbert does not want to be reduced to his status as a victim of an attack, nor does he want to be reduced to his paralysis. “Never disqualify someone for being in a wheelchair, you can do a lot more than you think with support and encouragement, you can climb KilimanjaroSo that’s what he did. He flew to Tanzania after several months of preparation, raising funds, forming a team and recruiting porters, since the wheelchair does not pass all the rocks.
Martin Hibbert did not climb alone but was supported, encouraged, acclaimed by dozens of people, including the two nurses who took care of him in the hospital. “At the end, once at the top at 5,685 metershe said, it was such a relief that i didn’t know if i wanted to laugh or break down crying.” In reality, Martin Hibbert sang and danced with joy. His rise allowed him to raise half a million pounds for medical research and above all to demonstrate that solidarity and mutual aid are the keys to moving mountains.