Room 308 Huxley Building (please use entrance on Queens Gate)

Tickets now available online here (product name KDINTAD): http://www.imperialcollegeunion.org/exploration-91/category.html

Or buy yours at 1pm in Beit Quad on Tuesdays.

Prices £4 in advance for Explo members, otherwise £6 on the door (subsidised by club).

For non-members £10 in advance (available by contacting this email address) or £12 on the door.

(Join the Exploration club for £2 at imperialcollegeunion.org)

‘I'd always thought I'd rather be dead than paralysed: One slip, one moment and everything changes...’

A keen runner and mountaineer before becoming paralysed in a rock-climbing accident in 1993, Karen Darke is a truly remarkable woman, having achieved a series of challenges that most of us would never even attempt.

Karen’s traumatic fall from a Scottish sea cliff at the age of 21 changed the course of her life forever. Although she had said only the night before that she would rather die than be paralysed, Karen chose to fight preconceived ideas of just what was possible for someone who could feel nothing below their chest. Just four years after her accident, Karen crossed the Tien Shan and Karakoram mountains of Central Asia on a hand bike. This was to be the first of many adventures which would see Karen hand cycle the length of the Japanese archipelago, sea kayak a 1200 mile length of the Canada – Alaska coastline, cross the Indian Himalaya by hand cycle and make a record-breaking 600 kilometre crossing of the Greenland ice cap.

Karen’s captivating story begins with her accident and tracks her journey of recovery and acceptance through to her evermore daring series of adventures – finally leading her back to the rockface where she faces her fear head on and climbs to the summit of El Capitan in Yosemite after over 4000 pull ups.

“What is life if it isn’t an adventure? Disabled is a state of mind not a state of body, and I’m constantly amazed by what can be achieved if we set our heart and mind to it. It’s all about finding belief, confidence, motivation and commitment. And of course, friends. Then there are no limits.” Karen is an extraordinary human being, and a woman who has touched the lives of many through her spirit for adventure. ‘If you fall’ is her story.

‘Karen's captivating story shines a bright light on the meaning of challenge, and on the limitless capabilities of the human spirit.’

‘Karen Darke's story is about the indomitability of spirit. She has overcome the limitations of paralysis and discovered a life of challenge and adventure that many of us only dream about’

Joe Simpson, mountaineer and author of ‘Touching the Void’

Event organised by Speakers From the Edge, and hosted by ICU Exploration Club