Manchester Arena bomb survivor gives away specialist mountain trike

Martin Hibbert in his specially-adapted wheelchair on Mount Kilimanjaro

A survivor of the Manchester Arena bombing has given away the specially adapted mountain trike he used to reach the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro.

Martin Hibbert, who was left paralysed from the waist down by the 2017 blast, scaled Africa's highest peak last year.

He has now donated the trike to Emma Cawood, from Leeds, who was paralysed three and a half years ago.

Mr Hibbert, from Chorley, said he wanted 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".

"That was the key message, they can literally do the impossible," he said.

Emma Cawood won Martin Hibbert's specialist mountain trike in a competition

Explaining how the adapted trike works, he said 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," she said.

Of the new equipment she said: "It's 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."

The moment Martin Hibbert reaches the summit of Mount Kilimajaro