"But you'll be high in the sky on medication ... and then you die"

James Hoare was born with a brain injury called hydrocephalus and had 4 brain surgeries before he was 7 years old. However, that didn’t hold back his inherent competitive nature to try challenging and exciting past times during his life.

He started mountain climbing in 2011 with Mt Kosciusko then Mt Kilimanjaro in 2013. After Mt Kosciusko he created the goal of being the first person with hydrocephalus to ever climb the 7 summits - the tallest mountain on every continent.

But, everything changed when training for his next climb, Mt Aconcagua in South America. He was assaulted at work twice in the space of 10 months and lost both his eye sight and the ability to walk over time. This required life saving brain surgery. He was given a choice, do the surgery even though there was a 1 in 3 chance of something going wrong including a stroke, a seizure, an aneurism, a bleed or a heart attack, and if the issue was big enough he could die, or don't have the surgery and live for about 2 more years while on extreme pain killers. 

He chose surgery and immediately regained his sight and mobility … enough to actively pursue his lofty goal to be the first person with hydrocephalus to climb the 7 summits of the world.

James’s story is one of courage, persistence, resilience and most importantly the will to live.

Follow James @ Aiming At Everest on Facebook.