Paul Pritchard is no stranger to taking risks.
A professional mountaineer, he’s scaled towers and columns of rocks that would have many of us quaking at the bottom, all over the world from Patagonia to the Himalayas. And despite acquiring a disability through the sport he loves, he hasn’t stopped.
While climbing the world’s most slender needle of rock, known as The Totem Pole, a boulder dislodged from above, hitting Pritchard and crushing his skull. He was hauled 30 metres to safety by his partner Celia Bull, but sustained a brain injury that initially looked like it would put an end to his climbing career.
Pritchard lost the use of his right side, suffered seizures, and couldn’t talk for a year. But 18 years later, he returned to The Totem Pole and scaled it to the top.
“It was a very emotional climb for me, and when I actually got to the summit, I felt this huge weight lifted off my shoulders because it was a very cathartic experience,” he told Freedom2Live.
“I am a firm believer that everybody should challenge themselves and face their fears, within reason.”
TED Talk
Paul recounts this story in his TedXHobart Talk, Learning to Find Dignity in Risk, where he calls for society to respect the choices and aspirations of people with disability.
“The dignity of risk goes beyond just just, society allowing, for want of a better word, people with disability to take a to take a risk. It informs prejudice and discrimination of people with disabilities, because by not allowing people with disability to take a risk it is infantilising them which is one of the roots of discrimination in the disability community,” he explained.
Pritchard is currently concentrating on film making, including one that focuses on people with disability on the Larapinta End to End trail – once again encapsulating the dignity of risk.
He is also on the board of Disability Voices Tasmania and a member of the Hobart Council Access Committee.
“I am a passionate advocate for people with disability, and recognise that we are disabled by a lack of inclusion in society, not by our own design. The only way we are ever going to change this situation is by getting involved,” he said.