After losing her leg and child in a crash, returning to combat in Afghanistan and qualifying for the Paralympics, Ottawa's Kimberly Fawcett is tackling a new challenge with help from a CTV Ottawa personality.
The triathlete will be climbing Mount Kilimanjaro in February to benefit Parathletes of Canada, her charity that hopes to provide amputee children with prosthetic limbs fit for sports.
"The thrill of the game is what I want, I'd like to see kids in wheelchairs and with walkers … on the field," she said. "I think of Keiran and he would just swim, bike, run everyday."
Fawcett's son Keiran was killed in the crash that cost Fawcett her leg in 2006.
Afterwards, the Canadian Forces Captain became the first amputee soldier to return to combat since the Korean War and is now the only female amputee track athlete in Canada competing at the Paralympic level.
Fawcett said she's working on the charity to get more young amputee girls into sports.
‘We need more girls participating in the high-active sports, triathlon, track and field," she said. "We have a lot in swimming which is great but this means having great prosthetic legs."
To help raise awareness and money for her charity, Fawcett will be climbing Africa's Mount Kilimanjaro with a group of women that includes CTV Ottawa's Kimothy Walker.
"I've climbed Kilimanjaro before, to me it represents a spiritual journey," Fawcett said. "I really felt that woman with disabilities in sport were very underrepresented so I wanted an all-woman contingent to go and help me launch this charity."
You can follow Kimothy on Twitter as she prepares for and heads out on their trip.
With a report from CTV Ottawa's Kimothy Walker
