Disabled adventurer encourages youngsters

Thursday, September 07, 2006

To reach the north and south poles is a tough challenge for the fittest of people. It is a formidable test of stamina and endurance. Today the first disabled person to achieve this remarkable feat came to Glasgow to encourage Scottish youngsters to live out their dreams.

Asked what went through his mind, Michael McGrath said: "Keep going. Keep going. Keep going. There was a fear of failure at one end because of the extreme cold and people with muscular dystrophy feel the cold particularly in their extremeties and their circulatory systems are less efficient at the best of times."

Before he was diagnosed with this progressive muscle wasting disease at the age of 17, Michael McGrath was planning to be a golf pro and had been invited to play at Junior Wimbledon. At the age of 41 he now travels the world to invite people to explore their potential and realise their dreams.

Today he was at St Aloysius school in Glasgow. Watching intently from the audience was eight-year-old Ben Brawley who sufffers from the same condition. He said: "I can walk but I can't walk far distances and my mum says I'm coping really well in all the things I can do. I just get on with it. In five weeks time I'm going to be learning hockey."

For the present it is hockey, but perhaps in the future it will be trekking the Poles. Today Michael McGrath asked Ben and the other youngsters to close their text books and to visualise their dreams.

Reproduced with the permission of Scottish Television

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