‘No leg, no excuse’: Amputee climbing one of UK’s highest mountains on crutches
“No leg, no excuse” – those are the words which will be on Matt Edwards’ T-shirt when he climbs the highest mountain in Wales this weekend.
The amputee will scale Mount Snowdon (Yr Wyddfa) with his friend Jack Sharpe on Saturday, and wants to show people that you can achieve success in the face of adversity.
Mr Edwards, 24, faces the added challenge of doing the hike on crutches after he lost his left leg below the knee five years ago.
Mr Edwards has been in training for his climb
After a traffic collision while travelling on his motorbike, Mr Edwards was put in an induced coma before waking up on Christmas Eve without his left leg at the age of 19.
He said that it was “physically and mentally hard” to process and due to a lack of support at the time, he turned to alcohol and drugs before spending a few weeks in rehab in early 2019.
“At one point, I was drinking every day for about six months and became addicted to cocaine and that’s when I got sectioned in mid-February 2019 for drug-induced psychosis,” Mr Edwards said.
“Even before that, I was homeless and was just being a scrounger.”
After that, Mr Edwards turned his life around with a newly-discovered love of keeping fit and helping others.
He added: “I created a charity called Boxing for the Brain before the pandemic and I help people who have low self-esteem, no confidence.
“When I got out of rehab they told me I needed a hobby to keep my mind away from drugs and alcohol and when I found boxing and punched the bag for the first time, it was an instant stress reliever.
“I knew instantly that I could help a lot of people through this and have helped a lot of people get clean, sober and even housed and even just act as a shoulder to cry on.
“I believe God gave me the accident to get me to change my life around.”
‘Push to the top’
Mr Edwards says that he always wanted to climb Snowdon and he aims to complete the hike in under six hours.
He will be raising money for the Stillbirth and Neonatal Death Charity (SANDS).
He said: “Last year, my brother-in-law Callum went through a stillbirth and it broke him dramatically – it really, really affected him.
“That’s why I chose SANDS to raise money for – it is in remembrance of Vienna Bowden, his baby girl.
“I also wanted the challenge to have a charity aspect because when you get half way and you feel like giving up – your arms are dead and your ankles are hurting, you’re soaking wet and slipping and sliding – that gives you the push to the top.
“I have an abscess on my leg at the moment so cannot use my prosthetic leg, so I will crutch myself all the way to the summit.”
The support Mr Edwards has received in donations and messages has given him more motivation ahead of the hike.
“It’s nice to know that people out there are following my journey,” he said.
“I also want to show that I don’t have a disability, I have a different ability.”
UK
Urgent letter to home secretary over violence against women and girls strategy – as it omits child abuse
Ten child protection organisations have written an urgent letter to the home secretary expressing concern about the omission of child sexual abuse from the government’s violence against women and girls strategy, following a Sky News report.
Groups including the NSPCC, Barnardo’s and The Children’s Society wrote to Yvette Cooper to say that violence against women and girls (VAWG) and child sexual abuse are “inherently and deeply connected”, suggesting any “serious strategy” to address VAWG needs to focus on child sexual abuse and exploitation.
The letter comes after Sky News revealed an internal Home Office document, titled Our draft definition of VAWG, which said that child sexual abuse and exploitation is not “explicitly within the scope” of their strategy, due to be published in September.
Poppy Eyre when she was four years old
Responding to Sky News’ original report, Poppy Eyre, who was sexually abused and raped by her grandfather when she was four, said: “VAWG is – violence against women and girls. If you take child sexual abuse out of it, where are the girls?”
The Centre of Expertise on Child Sexual Abuse, which is funded by the Home Office and a signatory to the letter, estimates 500,000 children in England and Wales are sexually abused every year.
The NSPCC “welcome” the government’s pledge to halve VAWG in a decade, but is “worried that if they are going to fulfil this commitment, the strategy absolutely has to include clear deliverable objectives to combat child sexual abuse and exploitation too”, the head of policy, Anna Edmundson, told Sky News.
Poppy is a survivor of child sexual abuse
She warned the government “will miss a golden opportunity” and the needs of thousands of girls will be “overlooked” if child sexual abuse and exploitation is not “at the heart of its flagship strategy”.
The government insists the VAWG programme will include action to tackle child sexual abuse, but says it also wants to create a distinctive plan to “ensure those crimes get the specialist response they demand”.
“My message to the government is that if you’re going to make child sexual abuse a separate thing, we need it now,” Poppy told Sky News.
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Rape Crisis, which is one of the largest organisations providing support to women in England and Wales, shares these concerns.
It wants plans to tackle child sexual abuse to be part of the strategy, and not to sit outside it.
“If a violence against women and girls strategy doesn’t include sexual violence towards girls, then it runs the risk of being a strategy for addressing some violence towards some females, but not all,” chief executive Ciara Bergman said.
A Home Office spokesperson said the government is “working tirelessly to tackle the appalling crimes of violence against women and girls and child sexual exploitation and abuse, as part of our Safer Streets mission”.
“We are already investing in new programmes and introducing landmark laws to overhaul the policing and criminal justice response to these crimes, as well as acting on the recommendations of Baroness Casey’s review into group-based Child Sexual Exploitation, and the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse,” they added.
UK
Man and boy arrested on suspicion of arson after restaurant fire leaves two in critical condition
A 54-year-old man and a 15-year-old boy have been arrested on suspicion of arson with intent to endanger life after a restaurant fire in east London on Friday.
Three people were taken to hospital in a life-threatening condition after the fire at the Indian Aroma in Ilford.
Two remained in a critical condition on Sunday morning, according to the Metropolitan Police.
The restaurant suffered extensive damage in the blaze.
Two further victims are thought to have left the scene before officers arrived, Scotland Yard said.
Woodford Avenue from above. Pic: UK News and Pictures
Police are still trying to identify them.
CCTV footage seen by the PA news agency appears to show a group of people wearing face coverings walk into the restaurant and pour liquid on the floor.
Seconds later, the inside of the restaurant is engulfed in flames.
“While we have made two arrests, our investigation continues at pace so we can piece together what happened on Friday evening,” said the Met Police’s DCI Mark Rogers.
“I know the community [is] concerned and shocked by this incident.
The moment the fire broke out.
“I would urge anyone with any information or concerns to come forward and speak to police.”
Hospital porter Edward Thawe went to help after hearing screams from his nearby home.
He described the scene as “horrible” and “more than scary and the sort of thing that you don’t want to look at twice.”
He said: “I heard screaming and people saying they had called the police.”
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The 43-year-old said he saw a woman and a severely burned man who may have been customers.
Another witness, who did not want to be named, said he saw three “severely burned” people being doused by the emergency services and given oxygen.
“I can only imagine the pain they were going through,” he said.
On Saturday, the London Ambulance Service told Sky News: “We sent resources to the scene, including ambulance crews, an advanced paramedic, an incident response officer and paramedics from our hazardous area response team.
“We treated five people for burns and smoke inhalation. We took two patients to a major trauma centre and three others to local hospitals.”
The police investigation is continuing.
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