'I will change people's perception of disabilities' says Ex Ghurkha Double Amputee
He completed a world first by climbing Mount Everest last year.
A former Gurkha, who is a double amputee, has told us it's his mission to change people's perceptions of disabilities.
Hari Budha Magar, from Canterbury, became the world’s first double above-knee amputee to climb Mount Everest in 2023.
In 2010 he lost both his legs to an IED in Afghanistan, while serving with the British Army.
He is now aiming to climb the seven summits, which is the highest peak on each continent. In May, he climbed Denali in Alaska, meaning he must scale three more peaks to complete his goal.
They include: Aconcagua in South America, Puncak Jaya in Oceania and Mount Vinson in Antarctica.
In August 2019 he climbed Mont Blanc in Europe, followed by Kilimanjaro in Africa in January 2020 and Everest in Asia in 2023.
In recognition of his achievement, Mr Magar won a Pride of Britain award, for 'special recognition, which he told us was 'amazing'.
He said: "For me, i got to climb Mount Everest to inspire people with disability but also to show society to not discriminate against us and to support us.
"Before I started climbing I was in a really bad place, and one day I thought if I keep going this way I will die soon and if that happens my family will have to live with my negative legacy so I decided to change things and it started with a sky dive.
"I didn't know I would climb Everest, I started just wanting to get out my wheelchair, and go to toilet but slowly we are able to do more and as long as we can adapt our life according to time and the situation an our abilities then we can make anything possible.
"This won't happen overnight, it will take it's time. Our legs, hands, and eyes could be our weakness but that doesn't mean we can't do anything and in my view we all have weaknesses.