Karen was a geology student at Aberdeen University, when she was paralysed in a rock-climbing accident. Before the accident she was a keen runner and montaineer, and has since pursued alternative ways to access the outdoors – canoeing, sit-skiing and hand-cycling. She has hand-cycled in various corners of the world, including Central Asia and the Himalaya, the Karakoram and the length of the Japanese archipelago. Karen has co-organised expeditions sea kayaking along the coastlines of British Columbia and Alaska, skiing across the Greenland ice-cap, climbing the kilometre-high vertical rock-face of El Capitan, and kayaking through the fjords of Patagonia.

Karen has the philosophy that to have the most impact in life we should challenge our constraints, adopt a positive mindset and support each other to be the best we can be. Karen brings to Aboyne tales of her adventures across the continents.