The first female quadriplegic to sail solo around Britain arrived back at Dover harbour yesterday.
As the sun set, Hilary Lister, 37, sailed into the harbour to be greeted by cheering supporters. She had been due to arrive today, but at the last minute brought forward her final sail after adverse weather was forecast.
Speaking in her boat at the quayside, Mrs Lister, of Canterbury, said: “The killer was when the wind died just east of the entrance to the harbour but it picked up just as I sailed in. I’m so relieved to be home — but looking forward to the next challenge. One thing I’ve learnt is that you can’t predict the future — we couldn’t even predict tomorrow’s weather — so I’m not ruling anything out or anything in.”
Her spokesman Paul Taroni said: “This is an amazing triumph over adversity. Everything that went against her Hilary overcame to do something truly inspirational. We are all so proud of her.”
The Round Britain challenge began on June 16 last year, when Mrs Lister left Dover and sailed the length of the South Coast. She arrived in Newlyn on August 13, but hold-ups caused by bad weather led the team to postpone the rest of the trip.
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She resumed the journey this year from Plymouth but just before the scheduled start was taken to hospital with breathing difficulties. After two hours under observation she returned to the harbour and left at dawn on May 21. Her route, divided into 40 day-long sails, took her around the tip of Cornwall and up the east coast of Ireland, the west coast of Scotland, northeast along the Caledonian Canal, and down the east coast to Dover.
The highlight of the trip, Mrs Lister, an Oxford biochemistry graduate, said, had been seeing marine wildlife. “Just seeing whales 35ft long fully breached out of the water was incredible,” she said. “Two of them jumped like dolphins — it was amazing.”
Mrs Lister has reflex sympathetic dystrophy, a degenerative disorder causing her constant pain that has to be controlled with drugs. The condition, diagnosed when she was 11, has robbed her of many functions, but she can move her head, eyes and mouth.
She controls Me Too, a 20ft Artemis 20 carbon fibre keelboat, with a “sip and puff” system of three straws linked to pressure-sensitive switches.
The technology enabled her to take up sailing in 2003, and two years later she sailed the Channel solo. In 2007 Geoff Holt became the first quadriplegic to sail solo around Britain.
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The Round Britain challenge has raised £30,000 for Hilary’s Dream Trust, which helps disabled and disadvantaged adults to take up sailing.
Landmarks and summits
- Geoff Holt of Hampshire became the first quadriplegic yachtsman to sail single-handed around Britain, taking 109 days to cover 1,445 miles. He finished in Southampton on September 5 2007
- Erik Weihenmayer became the only blind person to reach the 29,000ft (8,800m) summit of Everest in May 2001. The 32-year-old American had been blind since the age of 13. In September 2002 he completed the Seven Summits, the highest peak in each continent
- Oscar Pistorius, the South African runner who had both legs amputated below the knee as a child, fought a lengthy legal battle to be allowed to compete alongside able-bodied athletes in the Beijing Olympics. He failed to qualify for the 400m by half a second but intends to compete in London 2012
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- Natalie du Toit, a South African swimmer, returned to able-bodied competition in the 2002 Manchester Commonwealth Games afer losing a leg in a motorbike accident the previous year, coming eighth in the 800m freestyle. She also qualified for the inaugural 10k open water swim, alongside able-bodied athletes, in the Beijing Olympics