Kennington climber part of victorious GB team

A disabled climber was part of the Team GB Paraclimbers which took gold, silver and bronze at the recent World Paraclimbing Championships in France, writes Bethany Deer.

Leanora Volpe from Kennington won a bronze medal at the Championships.

Leanora was diagnosed with Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome four years ago. This causes her joints and ligaments to be unstable and her skin and organs to be fragile. She feels constant pain and is often very tired out. Over time it has caused damage to her brain and has meant that she has developed Ataxia.

The diagnosis meant that Leanora couldn’t do any sports for a while. She discovered climbing as she started to improve. She said: “I wanted to get fit again and that was about two years ago. I just went along to my local climbing wall for a taster and I really enjoyed it. So I thought ‘I’m gonna see where this goes.’”

Leanora spent a year climbing for fun, and while chatting to a friend she heard about competitive paraclimbing. She decided to try it and went along to one of the series of national paraclimbing competitions. She won the very first one she attended and realised her talents, so decided to pursue a career in paraclimbing.

On her paraclimbing journey she has had some challenges. She broke her wrist just before trying out for Team GB. Leanora said: “That was a really difficult time because you put all your eggs in one basket and then something happens that’s completely out of your control and you have no idea what you’re gonna do about it.”

Leanora was determined to make the team and ended up training with a cast on. This reluctance to quit served her well as she made the team in March.

Her training schedule became quite vigorous after making the team. Training six times a week and working a 9-5 in health policy uses up a lot of her energy. This strict training regime doesn’t leave her with a lot of free time.

Leanora may not have much time to spend with friends and family but she is still backed by all of them. When asked who her biggest supporters are she straight away said her girlfriend and dad.

Her girlfriend is 100 per cent supportive, Leanora said: “She definitely deserves a shout out because she’s completely all in, on board with me doing this, even though she’s not getting a lot out of it. She supports me no matter what.”

Her dad is always very active in showing his support, too, she said: “Every picture or video of climbing I put on instagram, he takes a screen recording and puts it on to his twitter account. So yeah, he’s a big cheerleader of mine.”

Leanora also works with Medical Travel as a brand ambassador and is part of a campaign to celebrate people just like her. The campaign is called Nothing Holds Me Back and praises those who still carry on doing the things they love despite their conditions.

She said: “For me it’s as if having these conditions helped me find the thing I love doing the most. But what I want people to take away from the campaign is that having a health condition or disability shouldn’t stop you from being able to do things you enjoy, things that make you feel accomplished.”

Leanora still has professional goals of gaining the national title. She also wants to spend more time enjoying life. She said: “My other goal is to have fun. I haven’t had time to climb with friends or climb outside. I’ve recently started a coaching job so my goal with that is to spread the love of climbing. Beyond that, who knows?”