'I lost both legs in bomb blast and conquered Everest - now I'm a five-time Guinness World Record holder'

'I lost both legs in bomb blast and conquered Everest - now I'm a five-time Guinness World Record holder' Heroic former Ghurka Hari Budha Magar is celebrating his fifth Guinness World Record today - as the first double amputee to climb the Seven Summits of the world Pride of Britain winner, former Ghurka, and brave war veteran Hari Budha Magar called the Mirror as soon as he heard he was to receive his fifth Guinness World Record. He is the first double amputee to climb the Seven Summits of the world. Revealing his news, Hari, 46, says: “I’m feeling awesome, honoured, so happy. “Climbing the world’s highest peaks was incredibly tough. I went through hell and back. “There were times I thought we’d have to give up, and other times when our lives were in danger, but I achieved the impossible and I’m over the moon to receive this.” The most coveted mountaineering achievement, it involves scaling Mount Everest, Nepal (29,032ft); Kilimanjaro, Tanzania (19,341ft); Denali, Alaska (20,310ft); Aconcagua, Argentina (22,831ft); Vinson Massif, Antarctica (16,050ft); Carstensz Pyramid, New Guinea (16,023ft) and Elbrus, Russia (18,510ft). Hari, while both his legs in an IED explosion in Afghanistan while serving in the British Army in 2010, couldn’t climb Elbrus, which is inaccessible to Westerners, so scaled France's Mont Blanc (15,771ft), which was recognised by Guinness World Records as an alternative. Starting his latest challenge back in 2019, Hari conquered his final peak - Mount Vinson - on January 7 this year (for which he earned another Guinness World Record), and planted the Mirror's flag on the summit. Now an adaptive mountaineer and disability advocate, his other Guinness World Records are for being the first double above-knee amputee to climb Mount Everest, after summiting the world’s highest mountain in May 2023; being the first to climb Denali aka Mount McKinley in Alaska, USA in June 2024 and the first to climb Puncak Jaya in Indonesia in October 2025. . And in 2024 he was honored with the Special Recognition Award at the 2024 Daily Mirror Pride of Britain Awards. Hari will also be recognised this year as one of this year’s Guinness World Records ICONS, celebrating winners whose achievements have had a wider impact beyond the record itself. Planning to hang his certificate in his living room, he laughs: “My wife might say it clashes with the decor. But how many people can call themselves a Guinness World Record ICON?” Growing up in a cow shed in Nepal, overlooking the mountains Dhaulagiri and Sisne, Hari was one of only 230 people picked from 12,000 applicants to join the Gurkhas. Climbing using prosthetic legs specially created for snow and ice, he says: “My aim is to raise awareness of disability. I want to shout from the rooftops that disability does not define.” Awarded an MBE in 2024 for his services to disability awareness, Hari, who lives in Canterbury, Kent, with his wife Urmila and their three children, Samjhana, Brian, and Ublan, says: “Climbing without my legs is really tough, but I carry on. I do it to prove I can. I was told no so many times.” Now Hari, whose book Conquering Dreams, published by Mirror Books, is out in August, has set his sights on an entirely new challenge. Hari says: “Perhaps I could do both Poles. Or maybe I’ll go to the deepest part of the ocean. I’ve never done downwards, only upwards. You never know, I could go to space! “I want to inspire as many disabled people as I can, so they can believe they can do the things they love. Disabled people are always told no. But I’m here to tell them yes - you can. I want to empower them. I did this for them. And to the colleagues that risked their lives to save mine when the IED blew up beneath me, thank you - I did this for you too.”