I fell into sailing by pure accident. I was on holiday in Cornwall with my best friend, who had a ‘Learn to Sail’ voucher for her birthday. On the day, it was typical Cornish weather for July: freezing cold; pouring with rain; and blowing a gale. She decided she didn’t want to go, so I went instead. From the moment we left the harbour, despite being scared, I couldn’t stop grinning from ear to ear. I instantly fell in love with sport. It was just a feeling of pure freedom that hasn’t left me to this day.
Turning that first experience of sailing into the career I have had sailing has been anything but a smooth journey. My road has been full of pot-holes, one-way signs and dead ends. Despite everything though, sailing has been my constant. The one thing that has got me through the hardest times. It’s no understatement to say that I wouldn’t be here today if I hadn’t found sailing.
Growing up I had a tricky childhood. I grew up in an abusive household and was constantly on the move, never staying in one place for very long. From the age of 15 my home life deteriorated and I left home for my own safety. I ended up homeless, alternating between sofa-surfing and sleeping rough. At the age of 18, knowing that I could now be considered an adult, I left home full-time, and haven’t looked back since.
Sailing has been with me through it all. I first learnt to sail by joining my local sailing club. Unable to take lessons, I learnt through crewing for other people as well as endlessly harassing people by asking hundreds of questions. When I wasn’t sailing, I read about it or watched videos. To say I was obsessed is an understatement. Every Sunday, come rain or shine, I would cycle down to the club with my kit, foil bag and a rolled sail balanced on the handlebars.
I fell in love with competing early on and it drove me to want to be better constantly. It played to my strength of being a perfectionist ,and fed my love for winning. I started at club level but quickly moved on to competing regionally and nationally. The further I went the more I loved it.
At the same time sailing became about far more than just time on the water. It opened up a whole new world, giving me friends, chosen family and a support system that kept me floating through everything I was dealing with.
What I didn’t know growing up, was that I was born with a progressive genetic condition called Ehlers Danlos Syndrome (EDS). Never having been to a doctor, it wasn’t until I snapped the tendons in my ankles by just getting off a trampoline when I was 19, did I even suspect anything was wrong. MRI scans revealed that I had old unhealed fractures of both ankles from many years ago and that the tendons had stretched to breaking point. 3 surgeries later and with no improvement I had become a full-time wheelchair user.
Growing up there had been signs but given everything I was dealing with I just assumed it was normal. It wasn’t until the doctors tried to work out why something as simple as getting off a trampoline had gone so wrong did the investigations start.
EDS is a group of rare inherited conditions that affects connective tissue. Connective tissue provide support in skin, tendons, ligament blood vessels, internal organs and bones meaning it affects your whole body. It presents differently in each person but with no cure it is best managed by early intervention to manage symptoms early on and prevent damage. In my case because I didn’t know about it for so long, my condition has progressed significantly, leaving me living with lung and heart problems and a completely paralysed digestive and bladder system. This is on top of being a full-time wheelchair user due to the damage to my ankles and frequent dislocations of any or all of my joints at one time or another. In my case the combination of symptoms means I will also live on a shorter timeline than most.
As my condition progressed, the one thing I made sure of was that I never stopped sailing. I initially adapted various dinghies before transitioning full time in 2019 to sailing adapted boats. I have since gone on to compete for GBR for the past 3 years, winning a silver medal in 2023 and a bronze medal in 2024 in the RS Venture Connect class. I am now aiming for a gold medal in December this year.
Ever since being a little kid I had always been obsessed with the sea. I always had these dreams of sailing around the world, but life had got in the way, and this dream had kind of been put on the backburner. As I found myself increasingly restricted on land, my dreams of being at sea again were reignited. I started by crewing on various yachts, but I always ended up frustrated. Without being able to adapt the yacht for my disability I was very restricted in what I was able to do. But I carried on gaining more experience offshore and specialising in working as a navigator and tactician. A bit like when I first fell in love with sailing the more I did it, the more I loved it.
In December 2024 my condition had progressed to a point where my quality of life was being severely affected by continual hospital stays for treatment. The decision was made between me and my team that I would move onto palliative care and invasive treatments that were prolonging life would be withdrawn. I was given around 6 months to live but nobody really knew how long my body would last. For those months I was determined to live as much as I could and focused on completing everything on my bucket list. It was towards the end of my 6 months, and I was approaching the end of my short-term bucket list did I start thinking about longer term plans. Despite, everything I was still alive and kicking and so I decided to reawaken the one thing I had felt too impossible to even put on the list - sailing around the world!
Project FEAR was the name I created for what I saw as my final project. It was named after one of my favourite quotes, ‘FEAR has two meanings you can Forget Everything and Run or Face Everything and Rise’. In the face of my terminal diagnosis, I decided that instead of waiting to die, I would keep living until I was physically unable to.
As I started figuring out the logistics, I realized I would need a boat around 32ft in size. This was a little outside of my price range and so I started re-evaluating. Putting all the numbers together, what I could afford was a boat around 27ft. With a boat that size, I set my sights on sailing around the UK and Ireland. As I investigated this more, it turned out that so far no one with a disability had ever completed a solo, non-stop
and unassisted circumnavigation.
In September 2024 I purchased an Albin Vega, a 27ft offshore racer-cruiser, who I renamed Fear. The challenge was set.