Australia's most inspirational athlete confronts the toughest challenge of his amazing life

UNABLE to use his legs since birth, Paralympic champion Kurt Fearnley says he's willing to risk his sporting career - even losing his arms - in a quest to crawl the Kokoda Trail.

If that sounds over-dramatic, consider that two Australians died within a week of each other while walking the trail in April. Walking.

Fearnley, born without the lower section of his spine, must take on Kokoda with his hands. He will crawl the narrow 96km route through Papua New Guinea's mountain terrain for 12 days, up to 11 hours a day.

He will be tested by everything from disease-carrying mosquitoes to mud that infects by seeping into cuts and blisters.

He will climb through a steamy jungle where temperatures will soar into the high 30s and humidity will exceed 90 per cent, reaching a peak of 2195m.

"I'm making every effort I can to make sure the injuries will be limited and that I'm able to come home in one piece, but I'm willing to take whatever risk there is,'' Fearnley says.

"Crawling 96km is something I haven't done before in 12 days and I don't know what the effect will be. If I was to come home and not have arms anymore, so be it, I think I'd be doing something extremely good. Whatever happens will happen.''

Fearnley is the world's leading wheelchair marathoner, aiming for a third consecutive gold medal at the 2012 Paralympics in London.

He admits Kokoda could break him and end his racing career. It's a big risk, but the 28-year-old prefers to focus on the rewards.

Joining Fearnley for the Kokoda crossing will be 16 of his closest family and mates, including his older brothers, Adam and Jason.

The adventure was inspired by the death of their cousin Peter Smith, who virtually grew up with them in the tiny town of Carcoar, in the NSW central west.

The father, who battled depression, died in a car crash on January 20, 2008, not long after dropping his two daughters off at a friend's house.

Fearnley raised the idea of trekking Kokoda at his cousin's wake. He will use the trip to raise awareness for beyondblue and Movember, both campaigns for men's health.

"I want to be as little amount of burden on my friends and family as I can, but I know there'll be parts of Kokoda when I'm going to have to ask for help,'' Fearnley says, claiming he won't be too proud.

"One of the reasons I'm going is to put across the message that blokes can ask for help. There's nothing wrong with turning to the fella next to you - your brother, cousin or mate - and just asking for a hand.

"If nothing else, it's going to make sure that if one of our family members goes through tough times again, they'll know there's someone there they can rely on.''

Family has made Fearnley the man he is, simply by treating him no different to anyone else.
As a kid, he would flip himself over barbed wire fences and follow his brothers into the bush. He would be the test-pilot for a home-made go-kart. He won his first school athletics medal in the high jump.

"If we were playing footy they wouldn't let me sit on the sidelines. Whatever it was, going rabbiting or fishing in the river,'' Fearnley says. "If I wasn't crawling across the paddock, they were dragging me. If I wasn't finding my way through a blackberry bush they were pushing me. They're the blokes who made me the way I am, that made sure I wasn't a passenger, I was a participant.''

Fearnley points out he won't be the first man to crawl Kokoda.

He's been inspired by the story of Corporal John Metson, who was serving in PNG during World War II in August 1942 when he was shot in the ankle. Metson refused to burden his comrades with the task of carrying him on a stretcher. Bandaging his knees and hands, he crawled Kokoda for three weeks until he was finally killed in a Japanese ambush.

"There's no bullets flying at us, all there are is 15 guys trying to help each other along the track. There's no one chasing us, trying to stop us getting there, it's just us,'' Fearnley says.

"Along that track, there isn't a thing you could do that could even compare to what people went through in the past. That's why it's do-able, very do-able.''

Guide Wayne Weatherall didn't think so at first. Weatherall, of Kokoda Spirit tours, partnered one-legged Paralympic champion Michael Milton across Kokoda in 2007. But having walked Kokoda 31 times, Weatherall couldn't believe a man could crawl it.

"That was until we went training off a headland in Newcastle with Kurt and I struggled to keep up with him,'' Weatherall says. "He throws himself around like those Olympic gymnasts on the bars. ``No doubt it's going to be one of the most incredible and fascinating stories of human accomplishment. Anyone who walks the track knows how tough it is. To try to crawl across it, that's remarkable. But I can tell now, there's no way in the world he's going to fail.''

Fearnley will try to defend his New York Marathon on November 1, just a week before he sets out on Kokoda.

However, he has taken four months off racing to dedicate his training to conquering the trail. He's now climbing up to 100 storeys of stairs in a session, scaling bush tracks near his Newcastle home and crawling more than two hours a day. That's on top of the daily 40km slogs in his wheelchair.

"The first session in October last year, I only crawled about 900m and woke up the next day feeling like I'd been through a blender,'' Fearnley says. "But every single time I've gone down there it's a little easier.''

Fearnley is experimenting with equipment to ensure his safety. Steel-cap shoes to protect his dragging feet, a leather-style suit and padding to protect his torso.

Fearnley's athletics coach Andrew Dawes will join him on Kokoda. "I knew I wouldn't talk him out of it,'' Dawes explains. "He's been training before and he got T-boned at an intersection (by a car while training for the Sydney Paralympics) and it took him out for three months. You can worry about things like that or do what you want to do. That's the way Kurt lives his life, who am I to say no.''

Adam Fearnley, Kurt's brother, says: "I don't think any of us doubt that Kurt will make it, we're probably more hesitant about the rest of us and our fitness. Kurt's got the mental toughness that he'll keep going no matter what."