Climb your Mountain

New Zealander Mark Inglis is the first double amputee to climb Mount Everest. Mark lost his legs in a climbing incident in New Zealand, accomplished his Everest first in 2006 and has a string of other achievements and awards. He’s a Paralympic cycling medallist, Officer of the NZ Order of Merit, wine maker, scientist, business innovator and trekking guide, while his work as a motivator and philanthropist has helped people with disabilities to scale their personal mountains.

 Mark’s message is simple -‘Attitude determines your Altitude’.

Mark Inglis

Mark has supported Exceed Worldwide’s work in Cambodia for more than 25 years, through his Limbs4All Trust and as a trustee of Cambodia Trust NZ (Exceed Worldwide used to be called The Cambodia Trust). He has visited Exceed physical rehabilitation centres in Phnom Penh, Kampong Chhnang and Sihoukanville on many occasions and, over the years, has helped to raise and donate close to $100,000 to support education and training for children, young people and adults with disability.

 Education, numeracy, literacy, qualifications, knowledge and skills are often the keys to employment and independence. Yet, across the world, the path to independence is often closed to people with disabilities, who can struggle to enter and stay in education. This is a big issue in Cambodia and, between 2019-21, Mark’s ‘Limbs4All’ Trust has supported the ‘Kids Exceed’ project.

 In this project, Exceed community workers locate disabled and disadvantaged children, arrange Prosthetic or Orthotic (P&O) treatment and support families so that their children can go to school. Along with P&O treatment, this involves paying school fees, providing school uniforms and teaching materials, supplying bicycles for travel to and from school and keeping in touch with children, families and schools.

 Exceed also partners with schools to promote inclusive education, adapt schools for children with disabilities and provide extra tuition and social activities for everyone at after school clubs.

Mountains aren’t always hills

Donations from the Limbs4All Trust and others help to make this possible and Exceed wishes to thank the Trust and Mark for the practical and inspirational support provided over so many years.

 As Mark says, Limbs4All is committed to ensuring that the disabled have the resources and attitude to 'lose the dis' and become able’ and the partnership with Exceed makes this a reality for many people with disability in Cambodia.

Exceed Worldwide Received ISO Re-certification

Exceed Worldwide has been re-certified for ISO9001:2015 Implementation until 2023.

This has been a major achievement under the difficult circumstances presented by the Covid-19 pandemic requiring hard work and commitment from all staff as we continue supporting people with disabilities in Cambodia.

Clinical Research Ethics – New Paper Sets Out the Ground Rules

The Exceed Research Network (ERN) and the International Society for Prosthetics and Orthotics (ISPO) have published an important paper about conducting clinical prosthetics, orthotics and wheelchair research involving human participants.

The number of research projects involving human subjects or participants has grown rapidly and this paper provides clear guidelines about the standards that organisations carrying out this type of research should apply, especially when working with potentially vulnerable groups in lower and middle income countries, like people with disabilities.

Commenting on the paper, Carson Harte, CEO of Exceed Worldwide and an ERN member who played a key role in the initiative said, ‘Researchers must respect the position of clinical research participants - especially vulnerable people - by ensuring that they can provide informed consent, make informed choices and engage in clinical studies or trials without physical, psychological or socio-economic harm.’

The new paper ensures that this will happen by specifying 9 steps that researchers involved in clinical trials should follow. These are based on the 1978 Belmont Report, which outlined 3 principles to protect people participating in research studies:

1. Respect for persons – courtesy, respect and informed consent;

2. Beneficence - “do no harm” while maximising research benefits and minimising risks;

3. Justice - reasonable, non-exploitative, well-considered, fair and equal procedures.

ERN and ISPO believe that the guidelines will be a useful practical tool for researchers and, most importantly, that vulnerable people taking part in clinical research will be involved as partners and equals in a respectful and safe environment. The guidelines will be reviewed regularly to address issues that emerge in an ever-changing research world and the paper can be accessed here:

Download paper here

ERN members who contributed to the position paper came from a range of organisations and disciplines:

Prof Jan Andrysek, Bloorview Research Institute, Holland Bloorview Kids Rehabilitation Hospital; Dr Michael Berthaume, London South Bank University; Dr David Boone, Orthocare Innovations; Dr Sarah Chang, Orthocare Innovations; Prof Nachiappan Chockalingam, Staffordshire University; Dr Alex Dickinson, University of Southampton; Dr Steve Gard, Northwestern University; Mr Carson Harte, Exceed Worldwide; Dr Aoife Healy, Staffordshire University; Prof Laurence Kenny, Salford University; Dr Cheryl Metcalf, University of Southampton, Ms Chantel Ostler, Portsmouth Hospitals University NHS Trust.

Congratulations to Technician Intake 2020 - Graduation!

On 30th April 2021 our Technician class of 2020 graduated in a virtual ceremony as ongoing Covid 19 restrictions made an in-person ceremony impossible.

Online Teaching and Conference Boost for Exceed, Cambodia

Online Conference Facilities at Exceed Worldwide’s specialist Prosthetics and Orthotics (P&O) School in Phnom Penh have be upgraded and expanded, with support from the UK’s University of Southampton Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council.  

Commenting on the development, Sisary Kheng, Exceed’s Cambodian Country Director, said, ‘This development comes at a great time. We are moving a lot of our teaching online, so that our Cambodian and international students can continue to study despite Covid-19 restrictions and the new equipment is making this much easier as the quality of both sound and images is so much better.’ 

The Exceed school, which is the Department of Prosthetics at the National Institute of Social Affairs, is a world leader in Prosthetics and Orthotics education. It has trained P&O professionals from 26 countries and given hundreds of disadvantaged Cambodians the opportunity to study by providing scholarships.