UK Adaptive Outdoor Adventurer Announces Record Breaking South Pole Challenge

This December 2025, record breaking wheelchair adventurer Darren Edwards, who is paralysed from the chest down, will attempt a new world record to become the world’s first adaptive adventurer to complete the longest sit-ski expedition in the history of polar exploration – sit-skiing 222km across the South Pole in just 20 days and in minus 30-degree temperatures – all in aid of finding a cure for spinal injuries.

Having had to push the planned dates of the expedition back by a year from December 2024 to December 2025, Darren will be launching his World Record Sit Ski Expedition Redefining Impossible at a Press Briefing at Red Bull HQ on Tuesday 18th November from 10am – 2pm and we would like to invite you to join Darren to find out more about the expedition with the opportunity to interview Darren and his expedition team before they depart in early December. Please see invitation below. 

Darren will be joined by a team of some of the UK’s most exciting young explorers including British Explorer and TV star Lucy Shepherd, Chief Scout and the first Black Briton to reach the North Pole Dwayne Fields and award-winning film maker Matthew Biggar. Skiing through the day and camping at night, the expedition team will cross the South Pole unsupported, facing the risk of extreme temperatures, altitude sickness, exhaustion, and extreme weather conditions including high winds, snowstorms, sastrugi and crevasses.

One of Britain’s most exciting young adventurers, and fast becoming one of the world’s top adaptive adventurer, Darren already has several world record challenges to his name as the world’s first wheelchair athlete to complete the World Marathon Challenge – 7 Marathons in 7 Days across 7 Continents, the world’s first wheelchair athlete to kayak the length of the UK and a member of the world’s first adaptive team to ski across Europe’s largest Ice Cap, Vatnajokull in Iceland. 

This December, multi-record-breaking adaptive adventurer Darren Edwards will attempt a new world record by completing the longest sit-ski expedition in the history of polar exploration to raise money to find a cure for Spinal Cord Injury.

Paralysed from the chest down and operating at the absolute limit of what is possible for someone with a high-level Spinal Cord Injury (SCI), Darren’s epic attempt to reach the South Pole will see him sit-ski 222 kilometres in just 20 days in -30 degree temperatures. Currently, the furthest distance travelled by a sit-ski to reach the South Pole is 111 kilometres, making this a gargantuan undertaking.

Starting at 88° South and ending at 90° South, the Geographical South Pole, Darren will be supported by a team of adventurers made up of British Explorer Lucy Shepherd, Chief Scout Dwayne Fields and award-winning film maker Matthew Biggar.

Antarctica is a dangerous place for anyone, let alone someone with a high-level Spinal Cord Injury. Skiing through the day and camping at night, the team will be unsupported, facing the risk of extreme temperatures, altitude sickness, exhaustion, and adverse environmental conditions including sastrugi, high winds, snowstorms, and crevasses.

Yet beyond the immense physical and logistical challenges, this expedition carries a deeper purpose. Darren’s mission is not only to break records but to break down barriers, challenge perceptions of disability and empower others to redefine the impossible in their own lives.

Darren hopes to raise £100,000 for the charity ‘Wings for Life’ which seeks to find a cure for Spinal Cord Injury, and funds research and clinical trials globally – with astonishing results 

Previous record-breaking challenges undertaken by Darren Edwards since he was paralysed at the age of 26 include:

In April 2023, Darren was part of the first adaptive team to cross Europe’s largest Ice Cap, the mighty Vatnajokull in Iceland. Alongside Ed Jackson and Niall McCann, the team of three individuals with Spinal Cord Injuries (SCI) overcame huge challenges to complete their epic unsupported journey in just 11 days.

In October 2022, Darren became the first person to complete the World Marathon Challenge using a wheelchair – the iconic challenge of running seven marathons in seven days on seven different continents. More people have stood on the summit of Everest than have completed this gruelling logistical, physical and psychological test.

In May 2022 Darren became the first adaptive adventurer to lead a crew of six on the epic undertaking of rowing across the English Channel (23 nautical miles across the busiest shipping lane in the world) in aid of suicide prevention charities across the UK and in memory of his father who took his own life in September 2021

In June 2021 Darren became the first person with a Spinal Cord Injury (SCI) to Kayak 1,400 kilometres from Land’s End in Cornwall to John O’ Groats in Scotland. He also led a team of five injured and wounded veterans during the challenge.

Darren Edwards is a former mountaineer and Army Reservist who sustained a life-changing injury in the summer of 2016. The near-fatal climbing accident would leave Darren permanently paralysed from the chest down. With determination, grit and positivity, Darren has overcome adversity by becoming an Adaptive Adventurer, Expedition Leader and Motivational Speaker. 

On the 6th of August 2016, Darren Edward’s life changed forever. Whilst rock climbing in North Wales, a section of rock unexpectedly shifted below his feet and Darren was sent tumbling uncontrollably toward his climbing partner 100ft below.

The injury Darren sustained would leave him instantly paralysed from the chest down and with a severe spinal cord injury. Darren had been incredibly lucky to survive. Yet, as he was prepared for aerial extraction by the Mountain Rescue, Darren made an important and life-changing commitment to himself. He would not be beaten.

Darren Edwards is a living testament to the boundless capabilities of the human spirit. Surviving a devastating, life-changing climbing accident that very nearly claimed his life, and could so easily have destroyed his spirit, Darren has instead used it as a catalyst for growth.

What followed his accident was an arduous five-month journey through intensive care, surgery, and rehabilitation. Whilst Darren was able to come to terms with the events of that day, it would be accepting the limitations and implications of his disability that would require genuine grit and resilience.

Darren has pushed himself at each stage of his rehabilitation to come back stronger and to prove what can be achieved by someone with a Spinal Cord Injury (SCI) and disability. Adventure has very much been at the heart of Darren’s recovery. Since first dreaming of learning to kayak as a way in which he could continue to explore the great outdoors, Darren has gone on to train as part of Great Britain’s Paracanoe Team, to pioneer adaptive freediving in the UK, and in 2021, to become the first disabled person to kayak from Land’s End in Cornwall to John O’ Groats in Scotland – a distance of over 1,400 kilometres. 

Now, a record-breaking adaptive adventurer, Darren has redefined the limits of what is thought possible for an individual with a Spinal Cord Injury. 

• Darren Edwards’s life changed in 2016 when a near-fatal climbing accident left him permanently paralysed from the chest down. Since then, he has kayaked the length of Britain, run 7 marathons across 7 continents in 7 days, skied across the largest icecap in Europe and rowed the English Channel.
• Lucy Shepherd is redefining what it means to be an explorer in the modern world. Her expeditions have taken her to some of the most inhospitable parts of the world. She documents these adventures, with the latest being broadcast on Channel 4, which tells the story of her pioneering expedition across the unexplored Amazon rainforest.
• Dwayne Fields is the UK’s Chief Scout and a record-breaking adventurer. Dwayne has trekked to the North Pole and taken part in a series of expeditions in Antarctica, most recently with Ben Fogle as part of Channel 5’s ‘Endurance: Race to the Pole’ TV series. 
• Matthew Biggar is an award-winning filmmaker and an accomplished endurance athlete. A former Army Reservist and Police Officer, after a life-changing sporting injury, Matthew began to build a successful career as a Strength and Conditioning Coach. Matthew will be proactively documenting the challenging nature of the expedition.

There are an estimated 50,000 people in the UK living with a Spinal Cord Injury (SCI) and each year approximately 2,500 people are newly injured. Globally, more than 300,000 people suffer an SCI each year (World Health Organisation). It can happen to anyone at any time, and the impact lasts a lifetime.

Spinal Cord Injury is a truly life-changing injury, one which affects more than just one’s ability to walk, but all functionality below the injury site (bladder, bowels, sexual function, immunity, temperature control etc).

Wings for Life fund the world’s most promising scientific research and clinical trials around the globe, aimed at finding a cure for spinal cord injury. Since its inception in 2004, Wings for Life has funded more than 270 research projects worldwide, including six major clinical trials, and a number of vital breakthroughs have been made. There is now real and legitimate hope spinal cord injury can be cured in a generation. 

As Wings for Life are supported by Red Bull, they promise that 100% of every donation receives goes directly to research. UK Registered Charity no: 1138804. www.wingsforlife.com.