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INTERVIEW: Lancaster wheelchair adventurer reveals plans to tackle dangerous 'divers graveyard'

Shaun Gash MBE

Lancaster's wheelchair adventurer who was recently awarded the MBE has revealed future plans to take on the deadliest deep sea dive in the world.

Shaun Gash MBE plans to dive the Blue Hole in Egypt, a site reputed to have the most diver fatalities on Earth.

Shaun also aims to kayak between the Komodo Islands in Indonesia, as he continues to take on dangerous challenges to raise money for good causes and show people that nothing is impossible in life.

The 54-year-old from Lancaster was given two days to live 34 years ago, after a devastating car crash left him paralysed from his chest down.

He also lost his leg while climbing Ben Nevis mountain in Scotland seven years ago.

Shaun received the MBE in the New Year's Honours List for services to charity and disabled people after taking on many inspiring and dangerous challenges over the years all over the world.

His plans for 2025 and 2026 could be his most risky yet.

LISTEN to our interview with Shaun Gash MBE

The Blue Hole on the Red Sea has the nickname 'Divers' Cemetery' but remains popular with divers for its natural beauty, the depth directly accessible from the shore and lack of current.

Shaun learned to dive with help from Morecambe Area Divers, in a journey that was captured by TV cameras for BBC North West Tonight.

He and his friend Mohammed Salim Patel, a blind BBC journalist from Blackburn, became the first paraplegic and visually impaired person to dive 40m and be underwater for 60 minutes in Egypt in 2024.

Shaun said the Blue Horn is "notorious" and diving it has never been done before by a paraplegic amputee.

"We will probably be going down to a possible 90-130m and then underneath the actual caves and come up at the other side," he told Beyond Radio.

"(My attitude is) let's go and do it and think about it afterwards.

"Look, they gave me two days to live 34 years ago and I'm still pushing the boundaries and I'm still here.

"If we all thought of the negative side and the worst case scenario we'd never do anything.

"I've got a great team. Curly is my dive buddy, he's the person who's coached and mentored me on my diving journey. We've already started putting in place the support that's going to be needed to us to achieve it.

"Are we going to achieve it? Course we are. Is it going to be difficult? Course it is.

"Is it risky? Just me pushing (myself) outside my front door is risky enough, isn't it?"

Read more: Lancaster paraplegic amputee adventurer becomes MBE in New Year's Honours List - Beyond Radio

Once he has achieved the Blue Hole challenge, Shaun then wants to sea kayak between the Komodo Islands in Indonesia in 2026.

"There are about 16 remote uninhabited islands and it will be a 10-day sea kayak from each island, camping on each island, from one to the other," he said.

"I've done the rivers, so I thought let's push ourselves even further and do sea kayaking. It's going to make things more dangerous."

Shaun is looking for sponsors to help finance his challenges and will be choosing charities to support at a later date.

Contact him via his social media pages @shaungashofficial

Last year Shaun became the first paraplegic amputee to canoe the Zambezi river in Africa.

Read more: INTERVIEW: How Lancaster double world record holder braved hippos and elephants on African canoe challenge - Beyond Radio

Here he is pictured with his wife Dawn in Africa.

Shaun is also one of the coaches for the Lancaster Bulldogs wheelchair basketball team, a motivational speaker and an international product specialist for RGK Wheelchairs.

In 2024, Shaun was one of a group of people across the country who was invited to appear on ITV show Ant and Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway after raising a combined £40m for good causes.

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