Danny Mavor, a tetraplegic veteran, is preparing to travel 79 miles along Scotland's Great Glen Way in an off-road wheelchair to prove that life goes on and can still be “extraordinary”.
Mr Mavor, 41, from Glasgow, served in the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards in Iraq. He was paralysed from the neck down after a motorcycle accident six years ago and is now based at Erskine Hospital.
He will travel from Fort William to Inverness over three days next month, using a chin-controlled wheelchair. The challenge will raise funds for Regain, a charity supporting people with spinal injuries.
Pushing physical and mental limits
The journey will push Mr Mavor to his physical and mental limits, but he said he wants to help other tetraplegics facing similar life-changing injuries.
“All my life, I’ve always enjoyed that feeling of a challenge,” he told the Press Association. “You break your neck and your previous life is kind of history – who you were, what you were, everything you identified as – there’s a lot to get over.”
He said he wants to struggle on this challenge because he believes sitting still is slowly killing him. He struggles daily with pain that has persisted since the accident.
Obstacles and support team
Mr Mavor previously described attempting 25 miles a day through Scottish terrain as feeling somewhere between “inspiring and absolutely idiotic”.
There will be at least two or three obstacles where he will need harnesses and support from his team to traverse steep inclines. “The path is going to be walkable, and drivable in a wheelchair,” he said. “It’s going to be bobbly, it’s going to be bumpy, and I’m going to have a very sore chin.”
He added: “This chair is all-terrain, and that’s great, but there’s still bumps – like stones and just little cambers, things like that that are all going to make a huge difference to the start and the end of each day.”
Regain is a charity close to his heart, dedicated to improving independence, mobility, and quality of life for individuals living with tetraplegia. His fundraising page is available at www.justgiving.com/page/dannys-big-challenge-2026.
