Paralympian Ade Adepitan has said he “genuinely thought” he had “let the disabled community down” after he failed to climb a volcano for a documentary series. The Nigerian-born TV presenter and former wheelchair basketball player said the BBC Two show was called Beyond Boundaries and involved a group of people, all with different disabilities, travelling through Central America. Speaking to Elizabeth Day on the How To Fail podcast he said: “I was on my way to leaving basketball, really in the direction of retiring in my mindset, and I wanted another challenge.
Adepitan, 51, said they were told they would be climbing a volcano on the final day and set off at 5am and had until 2pm to get to the top. However, the group were later told by the expedition leader they would have to go back down as they were not going to make it, according to Adepitan. He said: “At this point I was like, ‘I’m going to have to do something I’ve never done before and that I’ve always wanted to avoid’.
“I could see his mouth moving, but I wasn’t listening. I was like, ‘I’m going to have to get out of the chair, because he is trying to take control of my situation’. Ade Adepitan at the BBC Children In Need telethon in 2023 (Danny Lawson/PA) “As a disabled person, you spend your life hearing people trying to tell you what you can and can’t do and what you’re capable of.
“So I just got out of the chair, and as I got out of the chair, I’m like, ‘I’m getting up t.