The wheels come off Sally's Ben Nevis bid

AN EDINBURGH woman's bid to become the first wheelchair user to climb Britain's highest mountain unaided has had a rocky set-back.

One of the wheels on Sally Hyder's wheelchair was smashed off when she had her first training run up Ben Nevis ahead of her bid this month.

It has underlined the huge task ahead of the 48-year-old multiple sclerosis sufferer.

Sally was on "a dry run" up part of Ben Nevis to test her wheelchair ahead of the attempt on August 29.

She said: "I am afraid I hit a rock a quarter of the way up and one of wheels came off. There were these great rocks everywhere. The springs could not take it.

"I didn't come off, the wheelchair can run on three wheels. It was a good test and we now realise it will need solid bolts, not springs. |We are also now going to use a different route."

Sally now has been given permission by the John Muir Trust to use a track over its land, which should mean that she joins the usual "Pony Track" halfway up the mountain and reduce the distance she has to travel considerably.

She said: "There is a little matter of crossing a river with the new route but I will get across somehow,

"I am determined to reach the summit unaided. Even if that means dragging myself up."

Sally plans to climb the mountain in a battery-powered off-road wheelchair. Although wheelchair users have ascended the 4,406ft peak before, the path becomes so steep towards the top that they have had to be carried to the summit.

Sally has been training for the ascent by climbing the Pentland Hills with her husband Andy and has also tackled the mountain bike trails at Glentress Forest in the Borders, including the notorious black-graded route.

It is not the first challenge Sally has taken on since her MS diagnosis. She has also learned to scuba dive, and has had three children.

So inspirational is Sally's story that she has recently signed a publishing deal to recount her experiences.

Sally was diagnosed with MS aged 27. A keen walker before her illness, she last climbed a Munro on her 40th birthday and had resigned herself to never seeing the top of a mountain again, until now.

However, she will not be alone. Among her 34-strong support team will be members of her family, as well as her assistance dog Harmony, who she received from the charity Canine Partners last year.

Sally is only the third person with MS in Scotland to be given an assistance dog. She is now hoping to raise 10,000 - the cost of training Harmony - for Canine Partners.

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