Many people experience various hardships in life and each lesson teaches ways to come out of it stronger. For some, these challenges come in the form of setbacks in life from career changes, mental health issues or losing a loved one.
For Caroline Leon, an Australian resident in Dubai, one of the biggest challenges was when doctors told her that there was a possibility, after an accident, that she could never walk again. Deciding to take control and turn it into a positive, Caroline Leon went on to climb the seven volcanic summits across the world in Asia, South America, Africa, Europe, North America, Oceania and Antarctica.
As an avid climber, Caroline Leon was on an outdoor rock climbing trial in Jebel Ali in 2015, where she got into an accident that left her with a bilateral calcaneal fracture in which the heels on her left foot were shattered, a talus fracture that is the break in the ankle bone, leg was disconnected, pelvis fracture, and a burst fracture in part of her spine, where the primary bone of the spine breaks in multiple directions.
Caroline Leon said, "At the very beginning, when I came into hospital, they had told my husband that there was a very big possibility that I was never going to walk again."
After the accident, Caroline Leon spent two months at the hospital, and ended up having to undergo 14 surgeries and 23 blood transfusions. The recovery process was a long one, and over the first year, after being discharged from the hospital, she spent most of her time in a hospital bed set up at home, in a wheelchair and on crutches.
.jpeg)
Caroline Leon said, "It was so long, there were very different parts of it. So in the beginning, I was in the hospital for two months, and then I went to the hospital several other times for much smaller stints. One of them was two weeks. I think there was another time that was a week just to have follow-up surgeries, and then from there, it was very slow. So in the first year, I was in a mix of being in a hospital bed at home, to being in a wheelchair, to being on crutches. And then the third year to the fourth year, I was on crutches, no longer in a wheelchair, but really limited with the ability of how I could walk. I could only walk maybe about 10 or 15 metres, and then 100 metres. So over the course of four years, it really changed quite drastically."
Despite the difficult recovery period of over four years, that took a toll on her physically and emotionally, Caroline Leon stayed strong, and in 2019 decided she wanted to take matters into her own hands and make a difference in her life. While having conversations with her psychiatrist, she wanted to change the way she perceived herself saying, "In early 2019, I had spent a lot of time doing a lot of mental health kind of conversations with a psychiatrist. And at the time, I was very stuck in this phase in my life where I was considering myself someone who had a disability. I was not partaking in parts of everyday life because I had this identity that I was now, a disabled person. I remember speaking with a psychiatrist and she was telling me that it was not really a label that I had to live with for the rest of my life, and that was a choice that I could have. At the time, I was just exploring the idea of what that was."
While still mulling over the idea, Caroline Leon visited loved ones back home in Australia, where her friend invited her to go hiking up Mount Kosciuszko, which is the tallest mountain in the country. As she was still healing from her injuries, the one-day hike took a toll on her, and on the way down from the mountain, ended up in a lot of pain. After the park rangers were called in for help, one of them joked about trying out a Guinness World Record, which stuck with her and led her to where she is now.
Caroline Leon added, "I remember coming home, and these two ideas were sitting in my mind, this idea about doing a Guinness World Record and then this idea about not being disabled anymore. I do not know how they fused together, but it was almost like, if I did a Guinness World Record and I managed to achieve it, there was no way that I could ever call myself disabled anymore, because I had done something that was so out there that there would be a very definitive line that would be drawn along the sand, like an identity shift, that I am not disabled, and I just started to work on that."
Wanting to find something that was challenging but achievable, Caroline Leon decided to scale the seven volcanic summits around the world, to test her physical strength and turn her accident into something more, saying, "I decided to do the Volcanic Seven Summits, and that is kind of how this journey took place. It was really just for personal growth. My accident was so traumatic that I needed something equally as challenging and different to be able to get my mind out of that place. I used something that was physical as a parameter, to be able to challenge myself in a way that I would never be disabled again."
From there, Caroline Leon started training to climb the volcanic summits. While getting started, she first got accustomed to walking longer distances, starting with five to ten kilometres every day, and then moved on to carrying heavy packs, which is required to carry essentials while hiking the volcanic summits, as well as weight training to get stronger and build endurance.
The seven volcanic summits around the world include Ojos del Salado in South America, Kilimanjaro in Africa, Elbrus in Europe, Pico de Orizaba in North America, Damavand in Asia, Mount Giluwe in Oceania and Mount Sidley in Antarctica. Caroline Leon partnered with global logistics and international shipping company DHL, and in 2022 successfully climbed Ojos del Salado, Mount Sidley and Pico de Orizaba. However, due to visa problems, she was unable to climb Mount Giluwe, and went on to climb Damavand. During that hike, one of her friends collapsed due to exhaustion, which led them to descend the mountain. From there, Caroline Leon completed scaling Kilimanjaro, Elbrus, Damavand and Mount Giluwe, completing the challenge within 180 days.
While sharing her experience, Caroline Leon said, "The team that I was climbing with were very skilled, so they were walking very fast, and up until that point, I had been training to just walk slowly. It was a challenge to try and keep up with my team. When I got to Sidley, there were only 17 other women who had ever climbed this mountain in the world, and there were 60 people in total. So I was part of a handful of people who had successfully summited this mountain. It was difficult in its own way because we had some very long days and carried a lot of weight."
Throughout her journey, especially after her accident, Caroline Leon received an overwhelming amount of support from her community in Dubai. From visiting her in the hospital every night to buying a hospital bed for her home, a compression mattress and lots more, Caroline Leon said, "It is really interesting, the perception that people have of Dubai, that it is a very superficial place and is all glitz, glamour and money. When you have lived here for a long time and you have a really strong community of friends, you will be surprised how really truly caring people are."
Wanting to give back to the community, Caroline Leon started 'A Life of Education', which is an online platform that offers fitness and health courses. Wanting to make education all the more accessible and reasonable for all, people can register for a course and on completing it, will receive a certification, which is recognised in the UAE.
While sharing her advice on how to overcome any challenge in life, Caroline Leon said, "Each of us is going to be challenged by life in a different way. For me, it was a physical challenge. I had physical trauma, and an injury that almost cost me my life. I have come to learn through my experience that there is an ability for all of us to transcend these problems and to see them as opportunities for growth and kind of to level up. The only way that we can really do that is by taking on the challenge whatever it is that comes to you, and I really believe that everybody has the ability to do that. The difficulties that come to us in life are really just a little bit of a blessing in disguise."
Caroline Leon completed climbing the seven volcanic summits around the world, and is currently waiting for approval to be a Guinness World Record holder. With high aims for the future, she plans on scaling Cho Oyo in Nepal in 2024, which is the sixth-highest mountain in the world.
