Dave Padgen was born in Nottinghamshire in 1973 with Cerebral Palsy. He is a former Paralympic athlete having competed in both the Barcelona and Atlanta games finishing 6th and 4th respectively, and winning a clutch of World Championship medals in between. A graduate in Sport Studies from Staffordshire University, he now works as the Regional Development Manager for the English Federation of Disability Sport in the South West of England.
Dave’s love of mountains was ignited in 1993 when he attended an Outward Bound Course at Eskdale in the Lake District. He describes the experience as the best and the hardest 3 weeks of his life. In July 2004 he attempted the 3-peak challenge, climbing Ben Nevis, Scafell Pike and Snowdon in just under 25 hours. He was disappointed with this, missing out on the target time of 24 hours.
Dave had a very serious accident on the 31st August 2005, when cycling to work he had a collision that resulted in life-threatening injuries including a fractured skull and extra-dural bleeding on the outer membrane between the brain and skull. But his fitness and competitive streak helped him to recover extremely quickly and after around 3 weeks in intensive care, a stay on a ward and a short period in a brain injury rehabilitation unit, was discharged just 2 months after the accident. An epic story.
However, the bang on the head clearly hasn't knocked any sense in and the ascent of Kilimanjaro will be by far and away the most challenging thing Dave has attempted… so far.
Dave Padgen
Nigel is a seasoned adventurous traveller, founder of the adventure travel company High & Wild and advisor to Green Globe 21 on sustainable adventure travel. His mountaineering expeditions have included several in the Himalaya and a solo ascent of Mount McKinley, while as a skydiver he has made over 1,000 freefall descents. He set up the Ellie Poo Paper Company, which makes paper from Sri Lankan elephant dung, to the benefit of both villagers and elephants.
Nigel Gifford OBE FRGS
