Danvers woman hand cycles Irish coast for charity

Chris Slavin with her service dog Earle.
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Danvers woman hand cycles Irish coast for charity Wicked Local

Ireland - Chris Slavin used to spend months at a time traveling around Ireland, hiking her way through the Irish countryside.

“The first time I ever actually went [to Ireland] — the first time I put my feet on the ground — I felt like, “This is where I belong,” she said. “I felt like I was home.”

But that changed in 2007, when a snowboarding accident put the Danvers resident in a wheelchair, and a second spinal cord injury forced her to retire from competitive ski racing. Slavin didn’t know if she would regain the confidence to do one of the things she loved most: traveling.

That was until Slavin met her service dog Earle, who allowed her to rebuild that confidence again. In 2016 — for the first time in nearly 10 years — Slavin returned to Ireland with the yellow Labrador as her traveling companion.

Since then, the pair have traveled around the United States, as well as to Norway, Spain and Canada.

Slavin said she finally began to find possibility in life after a spinal cord injury (SPI).

Now she wants to show others they can, too. And it’s for this reason Slavin has spent the better part of the last few weeks cycling her way around the perimeter of Ireland, a journey she estimates will come to about 1,300 miles in total.

“A lot of people look at [an SPI] as a massive loss,” she said. “I want to get across that people are capable of living a life as complete as anyone else.”

She began the ride on Sept. 7 and expects it to take her just over a month, cycling between 40 and 60 miles per day. That’s about four to six hours on the road each day, for as many as five days a week.

Although many have completed a similar ride before her, Slavin will be the first to complete the ride using a hand cycle, or a recumbent bike powered by the arms instead of the legs.

In addition to raising for life after SPI, her ride is raising money for two charities. The first of those charities is Project Possible, her new nonprofit which aims to provide outdoor recreational opportunities for people with disabilities.

“My goal is to have people who have been injured to get back to doing what they love, and to be doing those things with their family,” she said. “It’s really, for me, about getting people outside.”

She explained that often what detracts people with disabilities from getting involved in outdoor sport and recreation isn’t a lack of interest or ability, but rather a lack of access to the activities themselves. The necessary adaptive equipment is often hard to find, and where it is available, it can be incredibly expensive. The physical environment can also pose as a barrier.

“If somebody wants to go out and learn tennis that’s able-bodied, they’re going to buy a tennis racket and sneakers. If they want to learn to ski, they might get a used pair of skis, or they’re going to rent,” she said. “In adaptive or disabled sports world, you don’t have that opportunity.”

Even for an activity like hiking, Slavin said one might night need an entirely different wheelchair, if not adaptations to their everyday wheelchair.

The second charity, the Ian O’Connell Trust, will support Ian O’Connell, a 17-year-old student Slavin met on one of her returns to Killarney in 2017. He had been cycling in Killarney National Park — the same park where Slavin says she regained her sense of independence the year prior — when he hit a log and fell from his bike, severely injuring his neck and spine.

“His story resonated with me,” Slavin said. “He’s an incredible kid.”

It was after meeting Ian that she decided to do the ride, one she knew wouldn’t be easy.

In fact, Alan Heary, who founded Race Around Ireland — an event that challenges participants to cycle a similar route to what Slavin plans to ride in September — said ...

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