In May 2017, Martin Hibbert’s life changed forever. He was at the Manchester Arena on the night of the bombing disaster, and is the closest survivor of the incident.

Martin was left paralysed from the waist down after a piece of shrapnel severed his spinal cord.

In a bid to “move mountains” for disabled people, Martin set out to achieve something incredible and give something back to the Spinal Injury Association (SIA), an organisation that took him through rehabilitation, offered him hope, and helped saved his life. Dubbed “Martin’s Mountain”, he hopes to raise £1m for the SIA.

The challenge: to scale Africa’s highest mountain, Mount Kilimanjaro, in a specialised wheelchair with a team of climbers to help him reach the top.

Just a few days ago, Martin successfully achieved this incredible feat, equipped with an Iridium 9555 satellite phone and a SPOT Gen4 satellite messenger. These two particular devices were recommended by us because of their reliable network coverage and the peace of mind of logging Martin’s location at regular intervals so that friends, family, and loved ones back home could monitor his progress remotely.

We would like to thank and congratulate Martin on his incredible achievement. We are truly grateful and privileged to have helped in whatever small way we can. By providing Martin with such tools of global connectivity, we hope that we provided that reassurance that help is just a button-press away, and that we brought the journey closer to home for those that couldn’t make it.