Wheelchair race to scale Snowdon

Rhys Llewellyn-Williams won the race with his team last year

A group of people with spinal injuries are to race to the summit of Wales' highest mountain in their wheelchairs to raise more than £30,000 for charity.

At least one person in each of the 17 teams taking part in The Snowdon Push must be wheelchair-bound with the rest pushing and pulling them to the top.

The aim is to be the first up and down the north Wales peak with each team raising more than £1,500 along the way.

The event is run by the Back-Up Trust which helps those with spinal injuries.

The charity has run the race every year for the best part of a decade as part of its plan to raise awareness about and support spinally injured people.

The race is now in its second year on Snowdon after previously being run over Skiddaw and Helvellyn in the Lake District.

For everyone involved it's quite an emotional moment Bea Richardson - Back Up Trust

Last year Rhys Llewellyn-Williams, from Cardiff, won the race with a team made up of his brother, two cousins and friends, completing the journey up and down the 3560ft (1085m) peak in three hours.

The 30-year-old, originally from Bridgend, broke his neck in a mountain biking accident in 2000 and was paralysed from the waist down.

He now works for the Back Up Trust teaching wheelchair skills to other spinally injured people and says the point of the day is to change people's views about spinal injuries as a disability as well as to raise funds for the trust.

"The whole point is to challenge ideas about what is possible in life after such an injury, after finding yourself paralysed," said Rhys.

"Last year was brilliant. As the only Welsh team on the mountain that day we didn't really stop to take in the view and we got to the top and ran straight back down because we wanted to put in a good time.

"It is exhilarating just finding yourself on top of a mountain - it's about as far way from a hospital ward as you can imagine."

Not everyone on the day will plan to make it up and down Snowdon in such a rush with some taking up to eight hours to complete the journey.

'Emotional moment'

The trust's corporate partnerships and communications officer Bea Richardson explained how the event has already helped change a lot of people's ideas about disability - even those with spinal injuries themselves.

"It was summed up by someone who took part in last year's event, who was spinally injured," she explained.

"They said that they'd never thought they'd be able to see something like the summit of a mountain again after their injury.

"But that's what we're all about - if there's something you want to do then we'll find a way to do it and give it a go.

"Some people, like Rhys, take it very seriously as a race while for others it's just a matter of getting up there and achieving that goal.

"But for everyone involved it's quite an emotional moment."