Man Who Lost Both Legs in Afghanistan Conquers Everest
- Editor OGN Daily
- 2 hours ago
- 3 min read
Climbing the world's tallest mountain is one of the single greatest achievements a person can accomplish. But to do it after both your legs were amputated above the knee is truly astonishing.
In the seven decades since Sir Edmund Hilary and Tenzing Norgay summited Mount Everest, over 7,000 people have made it to the top of the world’s highest peak. Now, that number includes Hari Budha Magar, who was born in a cow shed in the village of Mirul, in north-eastern Nepal, and grew up in poverty. However, from an early age, Hari had a dream (inherited from his father, who never did) of joining the British army. In 1999, Hari submitted his application, along with 12,000 others, to join the Brigade Of Gurkhas which forms part of the British Army. And, much to the 19 year old's delight, found himself flying to Britain for basic training.
It lasted nine months, and he was then assigned to the Royal Gurkha Rifles. That same afternoon, his regiment was sent to Kenya. This was followed by Brunei, Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia, Canada, Bosnia, Kosovo and back to Brunei.
In April 2010, Hari was deployed to Helmand Province in Afghanistan and, just two weeks later, his glittering army career would come to a crashing halt when he stepped on a landmine. Hari told The Telegraph: “I had a two-and-a-half-year-old son and a wife in the UK, and a daughter in Nepal. I had built a house in Kathmandu where I’d moved my parents and my brothers to help them build better lives. I was the breadwinner for my whole family, so my immediate concern was how they were going to eat.”
The trauma of losing his legs weighed heavily on Hari as he was recovering at Headley Court, an army rehabilitation centre in England. However, one day, an army charity approached him, offering the opportunity to do a skydive. He accepted, even though the idea terrified him, and when he was 15,000 feet up in the air, Hari had an epiphany. “You realise how much you want to live when you’re that scared of dying. I remembered the Gurkha motto which is: ‘It is better to die than be a coward’. I’m a Gurkha no matter what,” he asserts. “When we reached the ground, I realised that I could do things even if I didn’t have legs.”
Not long after the jump, Hari decided he wanted to climb Everest and spent five years testing himself. He went back to Nepal to see how his body would fare with the altitude. He started to look for prosthetic legs suitable for climbing. When he had got everything he needed and his training was complete, his plans were dashed by the Covid pandemic - but in 2023, he returned to Nepal to tackle the mountain. From Base Camp to the summit of Everest, the climb took Hari and his team five gruelling days.
“I wasted nearly two years of my life believing I couldn’t do anything. Now until my last breath I will be raising awareness of what people with disabilities are capable of. People with disabilities like myself need to know that life has not ended. Around 1.3 billion people in the world are disabled, and then if you think of how many of them have friends or family who are affected by their disability, that’s a huge number, and they all need to hear this message.”
Returning to the UK, Hari was made an MBE at Windsor Castle in December 2024, and Hari has now become a passionate advocate for The Not Forgotten and the work it does to help disabled veterans live fulfilling lives. Indeed, this incredible story is being highlighted again by OGN and other news outlets in an effort to boost support for the charity.