There are many times that I
wanted to be like, just take me
back down the mountain. I'm done.
Tonight, the powerful story of an
adaptive athlete who overcame pain and
the odds to climb Mount Kilimanjaro.
Erica Boggan suffered a spinal cord injury
that paralyzed much of her lower body in
a domestic violence dispute 21 years ago.
And today, as we wrap up domestic
Violence Awareness month,
Becca Habegger joins us now to
talk about this athlete's journey.
Because Becca, you got to go with her,
right? It was. Honor,
I got to go as a camera operator
on this documentary following her.
Alex Erica Boggan is an adaptive
athlete who lost the use of her
legs more than two decades ago.
She says she has struggled over the
years not only with chronic pain
but also with her mental Wellness.
And that's why she wanted to
climb Mount Kilimanjaro. That's
right, she wanted to send a message.
Sacramento filmmaker and my friend Cody
Leibowitz asked me to help document the
journey with ABC 10s blessing as Erica
climbed Mount Kilimanjaro last month.
That goal was to raise awareness
about suicide within the disability.
Community, something she has
struggled with in past years and
how she has lost several friends.
With a peak of 19,341 feet above sea level,
Mount Kilimanjaro and Tanzania is the
tallest mountain in Africa. It was both
mentally and physically the most challenging
thing that I've ever, I've ever done,
and that includes giving birth to three
children. Adaptive athlete Erica bogan.
In Sacramento, documentary filmmaker
Cody Leibowitz connected through a
nonprofit called MORE Heart Than Scars,
which helps people with disabilities
compete in things like tough mudders.
And Spartan races, using adaptive
equipment and lots of great teamwork.
Cody was talking with the nonprofit
about a documentary idea when he
learned about Erica's determination
to climb Mount Kilimanjaro.
When we first heard Erica story in November,
December of 2020, we were like,
WOW, she wants to accomplish this,
and she wants to accomplish it to
raise awareness. OK, we're on board.
The fall group included
a documentary crew of 6.
There's me, capturing this,
sunrise above the clouds,
Erica and her team.
Plus dozens of porters and guides
who carried our luggage and
helped Erica up the mountain.
It was really important to
me, as well as really important to the
rest of the team for people to see that.
No, I was not just having my
team carry me up the mountain.
I wanted to do as much independently
as I possibly could a certain
parts of the mountain.
I couldn't be in my wheelchair
and so the team had to carry
me in like a piggyback being.
And that as much as it did help,
and I'm grateful that we had
it towards the end of of.
To climb it became a torture device.
Hardwood palpitate.
Anytime it was said that I had to get in it.
So a lot of pain
we climbed to the top over the course
of five days climbing down into
it's physically and mentally
taxing and it's hard to breathe
at that altitude. Reaching
the top yeah it very very
very emotional moment
she accomplished her goal driven
by a mission and a message. I have
lost countless friends and who also
have physical disabilities and to
suicide and lack of access is huge and.
When I say access, I'm not just
talking about the good parking spaces.
I'm talking about lack of access to,
you know, mental Wellness resources.
We want anyone that's watching this film
to really get a better understanding
of what it's like to have a disability.
If one person learns something from our film
and we did our job and the film did well,
well, Becca climbing, Mount Kilimanjaro
has to be just very difficult.
But then those extra challenges for
Erica having to make that climb. Yeah,
right. As I mentioned,
she suffers from chronic pain.
So on that last day.
And we were reaching the summit.
She actually passed out
five times from the pain,
though she does have that support crew
who does these tough Mudder races,
these Spartan races with her.
They know her really well
and they respect that.
She knows her own body.
So when she came to in a minute,
she said I want to keep going.
And they said she knows her body,
she trusts herself, we trust her.
You know,
they know the signs were if she was
getting actual altitude sickness
and would need to come back down.
So we we went on despite her,
you know, passing out.
She said let's go unfortunately.
You made it to the summit.
It was a really
emotional moment. Well,
passing out five times and still
making it to the top, that's amazing.
And when can everyone see this
documentary of her climb? I wanna
see it. Yeah. That's the question all
my friends have been asking me too,
as I've been talking about this journey.
You know, it is a big process.
The film makers are actually still
doing post climb interviews with
Erica and her team and then they are
in the process of hiring an editor.
So, you know, that takes a
while to put together.
It could be sometime in late 2023,
early 2024, but we're really excited.
To show the world this documentary and
about Erica's resilience and strength.
Alright,
Becca, thank you so much.
And if you or someone you know are
suffering from domestic violence,
there are many resources
out there to get help.
The national Domestic violence
Hotline is a one stop shop to get
you that help and their number is
1-800-799-7233.
And other organizations like we've Inc,
My Sister's house and the Children's
Crisis Nursery provide everything
from emergency care to child care to
long term assistance you can find.
All of these resources on
abc10.com slash to the point.