I don't know how many of you saw the news coverage about Hilary Lister. For a quadrablegic to manage to navigate the English Channel using a sip=and-puff mechanism to control her boat is more than merely impressive. I'm at a loss for words.

A British woman on Tuesday became the first quadriplegic to sail solo between Britain and France across the English Channel, coast guards said.

Hilary Lister, 33, who is able to move only her head, eyes and mouth, took six hours to navigate her boat, the Malin, unaided through one of the busiest and most treacherous shipping lanes in the world.

"It is very emotional for me. I was absolutely certain that once I got in the boat that I could make it to France. I am too stubborn to give up," Lister told reporters as she quaffed champagne after arriving at the northern French port of Calais.

"I want to get able-bodied people to rethink their views about the disabled," she said, adding that she now wants to sail around Britain's coast.

Coast guards at the southern English port of Dover, where Lister began her journey, said it was the first time a quadriplegic had made the voyage solo.

Lister's vessel has been adapted to be controlled by the "sip and puff" method, allowing Lister to adjust the sails and tiller by blowing and sucking through two straws.

Hillary Lister was once an athlete, before her illness.

Ms Lister has been a quadriplegic for four years, due to a progressive degenerative disease, reflex sympathetic dystrophy, which has worked its way up from her ankles to her neck.

And that is what made this story speak to me so loudly.

You see, I find this story both inspiring and heart-breaking at the same time. As some of you who read my words know, from time to time I talk about my wife's health problems, and the "cluster of degenerative neuromuscular conditions" that she struggles with. One of the two major ones is the condition from which has rendered Ms. Lister wheelchair bound. Fortunately, Paula's condition has not deteriorated to anything even approximating that of Hilary Lister, butthe article reminds me of the bravery that she shows every day. It also serves as a sobering reminder of what the future may hold for the two of us.

Let it be enough to say to you, my readers, that Paula is the light of my life and that the ten years we have been married have been a source of such joy to me.

And if you should ever come by the site and read this post, I want you to know that I love you, sweetheart, and that you are very much a hero and an inspiration to me.

Posted by: Greg at 02:58 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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