A war veteran who lost both legs has become the first person with a double above-knee amputation to climb Mount Kilimanjaro unaided.
Invictus Games winner James Rose trained for six months for the gruelling challenge. The 32-year-old climbed up to 15 hours-a-day for five days to reach the summit of the 19,341ft mountain in Tanzania, East Africa.
Former 2 YORKS private James said: “The entire time, I was crawling, eating things like pasta and rice throughout the day.
“The first four days were regular hours, from around eight until eight.
“But the last day was the hardest because the terrain on the final ascent was mostly gravel, so the earth was slipping away from under me.
“A couple of times, I really didn’t think that I’d make it.
“But I got my head down, had a good team around me, and got on with it.”
Married James, from Middlesbrough, had his legs blown off after stepping on an explosive device in Afghanistan in November 2009.
Despite suffering PTSD, he threw himself into volleyball and wheelchair basketball, winning medals at the Invictus Games.
He climbed Kilimanjaro this month with pal Darren Young.
