“I pledge to support the work of VOSAP through projects that stretch the boundaries of perception around what diverse groups of people can do both individually and together”.
This is the pledge statement written by the one and only Karen Darke who has established herself as an incomparable para-triathlete, cyclist, adventurer, and an author. This British cyclist has bagged two medals at the Paralympics including one silver in the 2012 London Paralympics and a Gold at the 2016 Rio Paralympic in Women’s Road Time Trials and was also honoured in 2017 by Queen Elizabeth in MBE Ceremony.
VOSAP is proud of each of our volunteers but having inspiring personalities like Miss Karen Darke is an overwhelming experience. It seems that our dedicated hard work towards the cause of enabling and empowering Specially Abled People (SAPs) has started inspiring People like Karen Darke, Deepa Malik, and others. With our life-changing impacts, we are reaching far and wide.
It’s a blissful experience to have Karen on board as a volunteer with us as she too is on the mission of inspiring and helping people to ‘peel away layers and expose the brilliant shining lights within’. She is the author of 3 books that talk about her life journey: Quest 79, If you Fall and Boundless. She is a motivational speaker, transformational coach and also has her podcast channel. Karen and her team are also working with various technology businesses to test new technology to enable movement on ice. ‘Find Your Inner Gold‘ is a series, a fusion of strategies that she has gathered from a lifetime of study and experience and she is helping people through her transformational coaching to find their gold.
Now that we have this amazing adventurer on our team, we can’t let the great opportunity go in vain. Karen is to hike Mt. Kilimanjaro this year and we are chalking out plans as to how adventurers of VOSAP can join her in this incredible experience. We are more than sure that many Specially Abled People, on our VOSAP team, will get inspiration from this amazing lady who has achieved unbelievable feats despite all the challenges and hurdles of her life.
You might already know that Karen is a geologist who got paralyzed chest-down after an accident at the young of 21. The accident that could have become a tail-end became a driving force to make her an explorer of the outside as well as the inside. She says we should “see life as a giant adventure, to learn and grow with, and seek the gifts that hide within the challenge”.
We are sure the entire VOSAP family will learn a lot from our new members. And, we are also sure that Karen will love the heart-warming experiences she would gain as a VOSAPian! We are looking forward to having amazing experiences with Karen Darke, the amazingly inspiring lady and we are also hopeful that many more such amazing personalities will be joining hands with VOSAP in the future.
Below is the list of Karen’s Adventurous journey over years….
| Year | Journey and Adventures |
| 1991 | Climbed Mont Blanc & Matterhorn |
| 1992 | Won Swiss KIMM Mountain marathon |
| 1993 | Broke Back in Climbing Accident |
| 1997 | Handbiked Central Asia Silk Road across the Himalaya |
| 2000 | Handbiked the length of Japan |
| 2003 | Kayaked the ‘Inside Passage’ from Vancouver, Canada to Juneau, Alaska |
| 2004 | Handbikeed Leh – Manali (Indian Himalaya) |
| 2006 | Sit-skied across the Greenland icecap |
| 2006 | Circumnavigation of Corsica by sea kayak |
| 2007 | First half-ironman (Aberfeldy, Scotland) |
| 2007 | Climbed El Capitan, Yosemite National Park |
| 2009 | World Paratriathlon Champion |
| 2009 | Sea Kayaking Expededition in Patagonia |
| 2010 | Joined British Paracycling Team |
| 2012 | London 2012 Paralympic Silver Medallist, Handcycling Time Trial |
| 2012 | World Paratriathlon Champion |
| 2014 | European Paratriathlon Champion |
| 2014 | European Paratriathlon Champion |
| 2014 | High Altitude Handbike from Tibet to Nepal |
| 2016 | Paralympic Champion, Rio 2016 Paralympic Gold Medallist, Handyccling Time Trial |
| 2016 | ‘The Wild Way’, handbiked the Carretera Austral through Chilean Patagonia |
| 2017 | ‘The Pacific Way’, handbiking from Canada to Mexico on the Pacific Coastal Trail |
| 2018 | Commonwealth Games Australia, Paratriathlon’ 4th |
| 2018 | ‘The Water Way’, handbiking Australia’s Murray River from source to sea. |
| 2018 | ‘The Hot Way’, high altitude, high temperature handbiking of the ‘water towers of Africa’, Ethiopia’s high mountains. |
| 2019 | ‘The Continental Way’, handbiking the Atlantic coast and the Camino de Santiago across France and northern Spain. |
| 2020 | ‘The Spirited Way’, the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games |
| 2021-22 | ‘The Cold Way’, aka THE POLE OF POSSIBILITY, sit-skiing in Antarctica. |
