To climb Everest, a Briton gets a Canadian bionic upgrade

The Globe and Mail Published YesterdayUpdated 46 minutes ago Save for laterPlease log in to bookmark this story. Log InCreate Free Account It’s a. m. on a warm day in mid-July, and Jamie McAnsh is sitting soaked in sweat on a log bench off to the side of the Grouse Grind trail on Vancouver’s North Shore. He’s about halfway up the 2.5-kilometre mountain trail, which includes 2,830 stairs, and he’s taking a moment to reflect. “Stairs have always been something I shy away from because they’ve always been hard,” he says. Then, pointing to the orthosis device on his legs, he adds, “This doesn’t make it necessarily easy, but it does make it possible.” Possible is the point for Mr. Open this photo in gallery: Jamie McAnsh’s neurological condition can give him intense, paralyzing pain, but he is determined to keep up an active lifestyle. In his early 30s, the Brit was working as a sales executive for a motorcycle company in Wales, satisfying his love of the machines. He was also an avid runner, with an affinity for the outdoors. , Mr. McAnsh led a relatively normal, active life. Then, on Jan. 6, 2014, he suffered a neurological spasm overnight that caused nerve damage to his spine and sensory nerves in his lower body. He became partly paralyzed from the waist down. McAnsh was later diagnosed with bilateral lower-limb complex regional pain syndrome, a rare, incurable neurological condition that led to him taking 16,000 milligrams of pain medication daily at one point. The pain was so intense it shut his body down. McAnsh’s condition is degenerative, and he will never fully recover. He used a wheelchair at first, and then later he transitioned to forearm crutches. But he became determined to climb back up – quite literally – and encourage others to do the same. In 2022, he spent 11 days trekking to Everest Base Camp on crutches. Shortly thereafter, he set his sights on a new challenge: Mount Kilimanjaro. But in anticipation of climbing sections where he would need to use his arms to scale rock, Mr. McAnsh began searching for yet another mobility aid solution. That’s when he discovered a KAFO, or a knee-ankle-foot orthosis device, made by a French company, Thuasne. Their system, which looks like a leg brace with a hinge at the knee and a shoe insert, gave him a sense of independence that he didn’t have on crutches or in a wheelchair, helping him relearn how to walk normally again.