ACHIEVE THE IMPOSSIBLE !

CLIMBS STANDS FOR – CONGENITAL- LIMB-IMPARED MOBILITY BENEVOLENCE – SOCIETY. Climbs is a charity set up by Gary Skyner in 2006 to attempt to give assistance to ALL limb deficient people whether there loss of limbs was (CONGENITAL) at birth ,or during trauma in daily life. CLIMBS are endeavouring to arrange significant events during 2008 – 2009.

Gary Skyner came into the world one dark, wet Bonfire Night in 1959 and he’s been setting off fireworks ever since!

He was the firstborn of Frances and Brian Skyner who had married earlier that year in a romantic Valentine’s Day ceremony. They were looking forward to the birth of their child but when he was born, the doctors and midwife took him away immediately from his mother, saying “It’s a boy. It’s a pity.”

With a great deal of sympathy, the doctor told Brian that his son had been born with shortened arms and that, instead of hands, he had jelly-like flippers. He finished his speech by saying “Poor mite. If he lives, he’ll never amount to much.”

That ‘poor mite’ is the man who will make you laugh when he speaks to you about Diversity; the same one who works in venues all over the country and, indeed the world, making hordes of people feel better after spending time listening to him or after an evening being entertained by him.

Gary’s mother loved him immediately and vowed that she would bring him up as a ‘normal’ child.

Gary has grown up without a father as he left the family, unable to accept or cope with his son’s disability.

Some people thought that Gary ought to go to a ‘special’ school but after taking a verbal test that proved he had intelligence and capability three and a half years beyond his age, he was allowed to go to school and began to attend Tiber Street Infants. Although the majority of the children treated him well, there were others who called him names and tried to bully him but they soon backed off when Gary stood up to them. He began to sharpen his tongue and his wit from a very early age and, though he was not aware of it at the time, by becoming a clown and making a fool of those who mocked him, he was grooming himself for his future career as a speaker and a comedian. His experiences mean that he has first hand knowledge of how ignorance breeds prejudice and how people’s perceptions of disability can influence the workplace.

He tried a few jobs when he first left school; a switchboard operator – not a success as his arms were too short; working on the door of the Register Office telling people whereabouts in the building they needed to go – boring, until the day that there was a small fire in a skip. They made the mistake of asking Gary to deal with it and he was at last able to fulfil a long-held ambition to be a fireman! He went berserk with the fire hose and had to have it removed from him by force when the real firemen arrived. The amount of water damage was huge but Gary’s adrenalin level was even bigger!

Gary’s next foray into the world of employment was as an apprentice welder. Although he managed to set fire to many pairs of overalls, he really enjoyed his apprenticeship there; learning a great deal, being just ‘one of the lads’ and, best of all, working with the hands that he’d been told would never be able to do anything. Unfortunately he had to finish after two years, when the doctor discovered on an x-ray that Gary’s lungs were being damaged by fume inhalation.

Being an avid football fan, Gary was thrilled to be chosen to play in amateur teams, showing just how strong his legs were and that he could score goals as well as the next man.

Gary has also earned himself a letter of thanks and praise from the Assistant Chief Constable of Liverpool, when he went to the assistance of a man who was being brutally attacked by thugs.

Amongst his many different careers, Gary trained as a paralegal and also, unbelievably, managed to train for and achieve a Pilot’s licence. There are not many people, with or without all their limbs, that can say they have had such a varied career path but Gary has constantly fought for the right to prove that he is more able than the majority of people have ever given him credit for.

It was in the 1980’s that Gary began working as a stand-up comedian though he had always had a gift for making people laugh. He did quite a few shows for charity and really found it hard to believe that he was not only being paid for doing something that he loved, but that other people were benefitting too.

The 80’s were a defining decade in many ways for Gary. He married his beloved Sheelagh in the 80’s and has two lovely children, Holly, the eldest, and Jessica.

The victims of the Thalidomide drug have fought for many years for adequate compensation. Initially it was the parents that took up the fight against Distiller (Bio) Ltd. This company sold out to Guinness in the late 90’s and, once again, the Thalidomiders began to campaign for a fair settlement.

They had been small voices fighting a huge organisation. By then many of them were of pensionable age and were worried about the future for their damaged children. As Gary states, “If I’d been in a car crash, I would have received about 750 thousand if I’d been left with a body like this. Instead I received a pathetic 70 thousand. If you work out what each of us needs over a number of years, it’s completely inadequate.”

Gary and another Thalidomider, Freddy Astbury took up the cudgels; they were fighting for proper compensation for everyone out of the massive profits that were being made every single year. They are not fighting for handouts or concessions. They want for every Thalidomide victim what rightfully belongs to each of them. He is still fighting and as part of that fight he is establishing a new charity called CLIMBS which stands for Congenital Limbless and Impaired Mobility Benevolent Society. This charity aims to help not only Thalidomide victims but those who lose limbs or parts of limbs as a result of trauma such as car crashes, other accidents, landmines etc. In this he is being helped by many celebrities who have both a voice and a social conscience.

One of the most enjoyable activities in Gary’s life and one of the most important, is the work that he does to raise awareness of disability and to show people that, no matter what challenges face them, thinking positively and believing in yourself can overcome every obstacle