Cumbrian-born adaptive adventurer
Founder of Adaptive Adventurers, Kate Appleby is using her own experience to create space for more peopleto enjoy the outdoors
Creator OF THE MONTH
“THE OUTDOORS SAVED MY LIFE,” Kate Appleby tells The Great Outdoors. Born in Cumbria, her deep relationship with the fells is “life-affirming”. After an abusive childhood and “a complicated upbringing” that took her away from the Lake District, Kate vowed to return to her happy place.
Now, the 30-year-old scientificconsultant-turned-public speaker can be found at home in the fells, climbing, hiking, paddleboarding, biking – to name a few of her preferred outdoor pursuits. Kate, a self-titled jack-of-all-trades, equates her hobbies to friends: “having many is to have different people to hug, support and comfort you,” she says.
Indeed, Kate needs variety on her adventures. She was diagnosed with lupus at 16 – a blow that “felt like the final straw.”
Back then, Kate explained that after surviving domestic and sexual abuse, “an attempt on my life felt like the only viable option”. She overcame and, in living with lupus, the outdoors became her “saviour” – a place where she could turn her back on the pain of previous chapters and heal.
Having different ways to enjoy adventure is essential to Kate as she balances the consequences of her complex physical health conditions – including Raynaud’s, Sjrogen’s, asthma and postural orthos
