Ice No Barrier

Confident, eloquent and highly intelligent, you could imagine Michael McGrath advising a roomful of company directors on management concepts. And this is indeed what Michael does, since he's a Business Consultant and Inspirational Speaker, specialising in the area of performance improvement, people development and motivation. But there's more to Michael than talking.

At 20 he was diagnosed with muscular dystrophy and since then has fought to build his career and maintain his independence. This he has done brilliantly, but Michael is also an adventurer. Despite walking with sticks, he has done a sponsored sky dive with a member of the Red Devils Parachute Team, following that up with a sponsored golf challenge at Ashridge Golf Club that saw him 'walk and play' 36 holes of golf. What you don't know is that Michael wanted to be a professional golfer in his early teens. In April this year, he travelled to the North Pole, walking the last 150 metres as part of the Chris Cope North Pole Expedition Team, to help raise over £150,000 for muscular dystrophy. We went along to talk to Michael about this amazing expedition.

"I was looking for a third event to complete a trilogy of event," recalls Michael, "and I read that Christopher Cope was going to sledge-haul to the North Pole to raise money for MD." Michael realised this was his next fund-raising opportunity, so at the eleventh hour he connected with Chris and his expedition plans. A simple decision? Far from it …

CLOTHING & GEAR

"People with muscular dystrophy feel the cold more than most," Michael explains, "particularly in our extremities, our hands and fingers, feet and toes. Extreme cold is something you don't want, so going to the North Pole was somewhat ironic and a huge challenge."

The first step was sorting out appropriate clothing, as it was important to retain body heat but not sweat. Michael started with five layers on his body and legs. Three pairs of socks - cotton, acrylic and wool - allowing his feet to breathe but keeping the warmth in and he had heavy Arctic boots, thick-soled and up to the knee. He wore three layers of gloves - thin, medium, plus large mitts. He wore a balaclava and a big hat with earflaps to keep his head warm, and goggles and facemask were essential for blizzards in protecting the skin from frost nip. His reaction to all that? … "Just unreal!"

TRAINING

Training in a refrigeration unit would have been useful. Instead Michael walked round the local cricket green at Aspenden three times a week for three months to build up his stamina and breathing capability; "I felt like the Michelin man in all the clothing, and I very quickly started to roast, so we adjusted the layers. But," he adds, "people might also have seen me loitering round the minus ten freezer section of our local Waitrose in Bishop's Stortford!"

He also received some coaching to help him through the psychological challenge of the cold. Remember the little boy in the Ready Brek advert who walks down the road with a warm orange glow around him? Michael installed that image in his mind using the proven methodology of NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programming), and learned at an unconscious level to trigger it at critically cold times, thereby literally being in a position to control his physiological state. It worked, giving him a huge burst of warmth around his whole body and particularly his legs, when he needed it!

Two friends went with Michael - his companion and carer - Major Craig Kerry-Williams of the 4th Regiment of the Royal Artillery, and colleague and friend Miles Peckham, Managing Director of Watermark Event Management Ltd. "Craig helped me through all my mobility issues, every practicality - getting out of bed, dressing, washing, going to the toilet," recalls Michael. "Out there the basic needs are hugely challenging. At one point Craig made me a sheltered toilet facility out of ice blocks - a magnificent throne that protected me from the icy wind. Believe me," he smiles ruefully, "when you drop your layers in those temperatures it's so cold that it not only burns exposed skin but things also tend to shrink!"

90º NORTH

The plan was to meet Chris Cope 150 metres from the Pole itself, at the 90th degree, and walk the last stretch unaided with him. So first the team flew to Oslo in Norway, then North to Tromso, and then to Spitzbergen, a small island East of the Arctic ice cap. In Spitzbergen average temperatures were minus 7 and this helped them acclimatise. Chris Cope was now getting closer to the Pole and they needed to meet. But the weather at the North Pole was appalling. After 2 days Michael made his first attempt to fly to the Pole in a Russian Antonov 74 freighter. "We spent 6 hours sitting in that aeroplane on the ground," Michael told us. "No heating, the doors open, sheet ice on the aircraft floor while the pilot waited for a break in the weather. Eventually the flight was cancelled and we had to disembark and return to the hotel." That disappointment was pretty hard to bear.

"The next day we flew from Spitzbergen to the base camp - a two and a half hour flight," recalls Michael. "The pilots need 1,000 metres of visibility to land safely, and when we arrived there were 300 metres and a blizzard. But they brought it down on the ice. That was my first experience of Arctic temperatures. My face mask had slipped and it felt as if someone was pressing a lump of ice against my face. We were only an hour from the North Pole but the Russian helicopter pilots absolutely refused to fly, and it was back to Spitzbergen. My heart fell to the floor. Was this the closest I was going to get in achieving my goal?"

They waited once again and two long days later were bundled aboard a Russian cargo plane into rough and ready seats alongwith 57 barrels of high-grade kerosene stacked behind them in the cargo hold. No words were exchanged, just crates of vodka and fistfuls of dollars - Michael says it was like being in a John Le Carre or Len Deighton novel. And on arrival they were secreted off the plane - somebody somewhere had clearly pulled some ropes to make this thing happen!

Chris Cope was now waiting at the North Pole in blizzard conditions. The Arctic ice moves constantly and the shift was moving his team away from the Pole. Their fuel and food were running low, one of the party had bad frostbite, and they were all exhausted. So with no time to waste Michael, Craig and Miles boarded two old Russian Sikorsky helicopters. Deafeningly loud inside and very, very cold, they flew above the surface of the ice.

"It was an extraordinary experience," Michael explains. "Looking out you can see the broken pieces of ice and the ridges where the ice has pushed up due to pressure. And I thought to myself, 'How am I going to cover 150 metres on that?' So to prepare myself I visited my unconscious mind and spent the flight preparing myself mentally whilst also triggering the visual picture of the orange glow and that whole Ready Brek thing. This really helped me to focus as well as stay warm!"

Once out of the chopper, Michael felt the full force of the Arctic cold and its minus 40 wind chill factor. "Nobody can prepare you," he remembers. "It is the most hostile, raw, stunningly beautiful place. Blue, blue sky, bright glare from the sun, and white as far as the eye can see. And all around us, amid a profound silence were these incredible sounds of the ice cracking and crunching and splintering as it continually separates and pushes together. I looked across at the British flag the team had planted at the 90ºdegree and it seemed a long, long way off.

"I took one step and realised I couldn't do it unaided - in the cold, my legs had gone numb. But I knew I had to get the job done so I said to Chris, 'I need your help mate.' And so I hooked my arm round Chris's, leaned on him and off we went, one step at a time."

Each metre Michael walked represented 1,000 people in the UK who have muscular dystrophy. It took some 29 minutes of careful, measured, icy and on occasion, unsteady steps. But at last they arrived at the flag marking the North Pole. For Michael this was total exhilaration; he had achieved what he had set out to do.

HEADING TO 90º SOUTH

For a while he was able to sit and reflect, and it came home to him in this clean, isolated and beautiful place that he had to continue with his journey, trying to make a difference for people with muscle disorders worldwide, including those with MD. It was at that point that Michael decided that what goes up must go down … he had begun hatching a plan that would see him reach the South Pole and raise even more money – this time a million pounds, to help fund further pioneering treatments and research. And that is what he plans to do in 2003.

MOTABILITY CUSTOMER

As a Motability customer, Michael implicitly understands the issues of mobility and independence, and these are very important aspects of the planned trip to Antarctica and the South Pole. "The intention," he explains, " will be for me to transport myself in a variety of ways from the 89th degree to the 90th degree, a distance of 69 statute miles, in sub-zero temperatures of -40C, which an able-bodied person could walk in 13-15 days or ski in 5-6 days. We're planning to do it in 4-6 days by using different methods of transport ie. by skidoo, sled, etc with a symbolic walk at the end representing those approximately 3 million people in the world with muscle disorders including Muscular Dystrophy walking". Michael goes on to say that if you have seen the film 'Trains, Planes and Automobiles', you'll know what he is talking about!"

TRANSPORT & MOBILITY

Robert Swan OBE the first man to walk to both the North Pole and South Pole is Michael's Expedition Patron. And because this is about transport and mobility there is a strong link with the automotive industry and the national organisation Motability.

• 2003 is the Jubilee Anniversary of the Motability organisation
• 2003 is the European Year of the Disabled Person

It is also the anniversary of Captain Robert Scott's "Discovery Expedition" (1901-1904) and his departure from Antarctica.

Already blue chip companies are talking about sponsorship, national newspapers and TV companies want to cover the expedition, a documentary is being planned and there is media interest from both the USA and Australia in publicising the project. In addition, there are a number of high profile celebrity endorsements coming into the UK Expedition Headquarters from all walks of life, from film and cinema to sport and disability to name a few. Finally, the TV presenter Kate Humble will be travelling with Michael and his team to the South Pole.

It's obvious that achieving things is central to Michael's life, and we have no doubt that the Antarctic trip will be the ultimate adventure. His project mantra is 'use a muscle to save a muscle' … so go for it Michael, Lifestyle and our Motability readers will be following your progress, along with everyone who has muscle disorders including muscular dystrophy to see you reach your goal in conquering the South Pole.

Lifestyle

The Magazine For Motability Scheme Customers

Autumn 2002 - Issue 37