My great passion in life has always been mountaineering. At the height of my climbing career, tragedy struck unexpectedly when my climbing partner and myself where caught for five days in a terrible storm after completing the North Face of Les Droites in the French Alps. The ensuing helicopter rescue was one of the most spectacular in the history of the Alps and made news headlines around the world. Unfortunately the rescue came too late for my partner Jamie Fisher but I survived despite severe frostbite and hypothermia. Later in hospital, all of my hands and feet had to be amputated.