These Three Friends Travel Together – And Carry One Of Them On Their Back!
True friends make their dreams come true together.
These friends share everything. Their adventures too. And they don’t care that one of them, Kevan, has to be carried in a specially built backpack.
True friends ensure that everyone can make their dreams come true . No matter what obstacles stand in the way!
Five friends on an unusual journey
A small group of friends from the USA have taken an unusual journey to fulfill a dream for their friend Kevan Chandler.
Tom Troyer, Philip Keller, Benjamin Duvall and Luke Thompson made it possible for their wheelchair-bound friend to travel to places that a wheelchair would never have been able to reach.
These friends are united by a love of nature and adventure, but Kevan, 29, was rarely able to come along at the beginning because he suffers from muscular atrophy, which ties him to a wheelchair.
Excluding your friend from adventures just because he is sick was out of the question for the friends, so they set to work to find a way to take him with them.
A special backpack
The idea was to leave the wheelchair behind and to carry the friend, who only weighs 30kg due to his illness. After a few unsuccessful attempts and constructions, Deuter finally came up with a kind of rucksack that, with a few modifications, made it possible to carry Kevan so securely on the back that he could see over the wearer’s head and take part in everything.
In order to be able to carry the weight of the friend permanently over an entire trip, the friends had to prepare themselves through training in order to strengthen the muscles and prevent damage to their own body.
It was a completely new experience for Kevan too: he had to get involved and trust his friends, because he was completely dependent on them, his wheelchair stayed at home.
Test run in the mountains
In order to be perfectly prepared for the dream of the big trip, a few test runs were necessary to optimize the carrying system and improve little things and get used to each other.
The first joint tour out into nature took place in the summer of 2015 when the friends set off for a hike to North Carolina with Kevan in the carrying frame.
Even on this first tour, it was possible for Kevan to go to places he thought he would never be able to see because of his illness.
The friends were encouraged in their plan to undertake a larger, further trip together in this way: a round trip through Europe!
3 weeks through Europe
In the summer of 2016 it finally started: three weeks round trip through Europe !
For the friends, it was not about visiting handicapped-accessible sights, but about the real adventure of a backpacker who, like all other young people, travels the world with a backpack. Except that there was Kevan in a backpack.
Kevan was carried by everyone in turn, and his luggage was also distributed among his friends’ luggage.
It was also a challenge for him to completely forego the independence of his wheelchair and to be completely dependent on his companions.
But it was worth it, because together they hiked through gardens and forests, explored viewing platforms, went on boat tours and took Kevan wherever he could not have gone in his wheelchair.
Supported by strangers
Of course, such a special trip is not free and costly.
Since none of the friends really had enough financial means to tackle the adventure on their own, the friends collected enough money via a fundraising platform to make Kevan’s dream come true.
In order to give something back to the unknown donors, a blog was created about the trip and everyone could follow the friends on their trip on Instagram.
It looks like there will soon also be a book that is supposed to inspire and encourage other people so that illnesses and restrictions of all kinds never prevent them from realizing their dreams. Because whoever wants can!
