Arena bombing survivor Martin Hibbert gives away Kilimanjaro specialist mountain trike to help woman achieve climbing dreams

Martin Hibbert, who was left paralysed from the waist down by the 2017 blast, scaled Africa's highest peak last year and has now donated the trike to Emma Cawood, from Leeds, who was paralysed three and a half years ago so she too can chase her climbing dreams. Martin and his daughter Eve, then aged 14, were six metres away from suicide bomber Salman Abadi when he detonated his device at an Ariana Grande concert at Manchester Arena in May 2017. However, defiant that this would not stop him in achieving his goals, he launched a mission to scale Mount Kilimanjaro as he wanted to “move mountains” for disabled people, raising millions to fund the Spinal Injuries Association in the process. He completed his mission last June and has now said he wants to help "others to experience what I have experienced". He said he decided to climb Mount Kilimanjaro, in Tanzania, to show "what somebody with a disability can do when they have got the right help and support". He said: "That was the key message, they can literally do the impossible.”

Explaining how the adapted trike works, he added it has a "push and pull mechanism" and can "glide over all terrain". But he said the specialist equipment is expensive and so launched a competition with charity Spinal Injuries Association to give the wheelchair away. Ms Cawood said Mr Hibbert was an inspiration and that winning the trike would be "life-changing".

She said she hoped to use it to climb Yr Wyddfa, also known as Snowdon, as well as to take her son mountain biking and go on country walks with her dad.

"I have had this dream for a while now to go up Snowdon and in my current wheelchair it wouldn't be possible. The new one is absolutely brilliant, I love it. The best bit is how fast it can go and places it can go, it's going over rocks and grass and everything."