UKC

19 year old Beth Monks, former Great Britain climbing team member, suffered from a spinal cord injury in a car accident back in May 2009.

Our Friday Night Video this week is dedicated to Beth Monks who has inspired us at UKC with her wise words and her upcoming projects.

Read more at http://www.ukclimbing.com/news/item.php?id=52413

In reply to UKC News:

Amazing story, terrible really, but a brilliant attitude from Beth.

However, on a different tangent - how devoid are those Skymaster competitions from anything to do with rock climbing? Just some thing I was considering once I saw the suspended ball etc. Definitely not for me.

Chris

In reply to UKC News:
Really inspiring attitude.

In reply to UKC News: Best of luck with the fund raising and look forward to hearing how things go.

In reply to UKC News: Its not just the Team entry fees that are going to help Beth. We will have collection buckets all over the place and our smiling staff will encourage you to donate.

I am will be wearing a Toon shirt all day and have so far been promised £100 for this - those that know me will realise how painful this will be for me. And I have challenged Squawk to wear a Sunderland shirt all day at the Team Training for a further £50 - Squawk being one of those deluded people who think Newcastle are a big team

We also raised £260 at the recent Ron lecture and the Broughton crew have just donated £40 in exchange for some holds.

Our target is £1000 so please chuck something in the bucket

In reply to UKC News:

Very sad story, but fantastic attitude from Beth.

In reply to UKC News: good luck with this - worked with Beths dad and meeting Beth a couple of times really inspired my son. We are doing stuff for sport relief next week Alan at Ellis G, I'll see if we can direct some of the monies to help Beth.

In reply to UKC News:

well worth bumping this up the list

http://www.justgiving.com/boma4beth

In reply to Chris Ellyatt:
how devoid are those Skymaster competitions from anything to do with rock climbing? Just some thing I was considering once I saw the suspended ball etc. Definitely not for me.

Well indoor climbing is never going to be the same as outdoor climbing so why not have some fun designing something a bit abstract.

Such a shame for such a young climber, and it wasn't even a climbing related accident.

I wonder what percentage of people who drive/are driven are involved in major accidents compared with climbing.

In reply to UKC News:

Beth lists a few sports in the AlpKit write-up (I've seen the feature documentary "Murderball", great film!).

This is worth a read:
http://www.freediving.biz/features/advantaged.html

I've thought for years that the "free immersion" discipline (using the rope to pull yourself by hand to your target depth, and back up) would be a sport that could suit people with spinal injuries - it's outdoors, it's in water, it's strangely relaxing and has definite quantifiable goals.
I asked on a freediving forum about the possibility, and the response was quite positive, including this link. Just a thought.
Couple of examples for illustration here (these are approaching world-class depths so don't be too daunted!)
youtube.com/watch?v=6OD3DscjQbI&
youtube.com/watch?v=TLrBnZr4eHU&

I am tenuously involved in UK freediving so if this sounds like something Beth would fancy trying, give me a shout.

Cheers

In reply to Blue Straggler:

(hopefully the clips show that you just need to be able to grasp a rope and pull gently - I assume Beth is capable of this if she's talking about sailing and wheelchair rugby etc)

In reply to Ian Hill:
Thanks for posting that Ian. What an inspiration Beth is and what a great attitiude. Oh, and that wheelchair looks bluddy fantastic !

Hi everyone its Sam here one of the guys doing the bike ride.

I just want to say a Massive Thankyou!! for all the donations, its been awesome and we are getting closer to the target everyday

Thanks again, and I will let you guys know how we get on! Only 2 weeks to go..!!

Sam Corbett