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Achievement

Rolling Back Home

Shahnaz Parveen

Peter Donnelly – a indomitable spirit. Photo: Zahedul i khan

Peter Donnelly from St Helens, Liverpool spent his 20th birthday on a hospital bed, paralysed from the neck down, eating a cheeseburger from his mother's hand.

Just 20 days earlier in 2006, his motorbike crash injured his back, neck, right leg, wrist, left arm and he lost his ability to walk. But his broken bones and pain failed to shatter his spirit.

Peter, who has used a wheelchair ever since, is going to travel 5,000 miles across 14 countries, from Savar to Liverpool, rolling all the way home to raise funds for people with similar injuries.

"Having never lost my sense of adventure, I've decided that flying back to the UK doesn't excite me enough, so I made up my mind to make the return journey over land," says Peter who is currently volunteering for the Centre for the Rehabilitation of the Paralysed (CRP) in Savar.

"This will mean travelling by whatever means necessary, including rolling on my wheelchair, travelling in buses and trains and couch surfing at people's houses for the night," he adds.

The trip home will be formally launched on 22nd January at the national monument in Savar. His first stop will be India, followed by China, then several countries in Central Asia. In Peter's final leg of the journey, he will enter Europe through Russia before ending up in his hometown St Helens, in Liverpool County, in the UK.

The money raised will be donated to the CRP, which helps people with spinal injuries, live as independently as possible, providing them with rehabilitation, mobility aid, education about their injury and employment opportunities so they can support themselves, Peter explains.

Initially, his target was to raise 5, 000 pounds, the exact amount CRP needed for the development of a rehabilitation centre. After creating a blog, called Rolling Back Home, about a month ago, he soon made it to 17 percent of his target. He is aiming higher now.

People met, places visited and the amount of money made will be constantly updated for friends and followers through his blog and through Twitter. Peter found 360 followers since creating the blog.

The trip is about more than raising funds and challenging himself. It is not just about personal salvation either, says Peter. It is also about telling people not to give up hope and that anything is possible.

"Spinal injury can change the whole life of a person. By the age of 20, I learned that things are never going to be the same for me", he said.

Most people find it very difficult to come to terms with this in the very beginning. Even moving on a wheelchair seems difficult. It gets them down, life seems to be over and they feel like giving up, Peter elaborated.

"I had stereotypes in my head about people in wheelchairs. I thought my life was going to be over. But gradually, I heard more stories of success, and more possibilities opened up for me," he said.

Part of the messages he would spread would be about freedom of mobility for persons with disabilities and how it empowers them, just as it helped him. Getting out of the rehab centre, the first thing he did was to take a driving test, which he passed with flying colours.

Telling people about road safety is also on the agenda.

"I will be passing messages to people I meet on my way", he continues. Couch-surfing is another way he plans to meet people more personally, to get the real feel of the areas and spread the message.

Peter knows that it is not going to be an easy trek for a guy rolling in his wheelchair in this part of the world where, persons with disability lack facilities. He is, however, optimistic that people on his way will give him the necessary boost-- even if it is just to help him get on a bus.