Hilary Lister (GBR), the first disabled woman to sail solo around Britain, has died at the age of 46 on August 18, 2018.

Paralyzed from the neck down, she became famous after she used the “sip-and-puff” system for steering and controlling a yacht’s sails by blowing and sucking through plastic straws.

Hilary became the first quadriplegic person to sail across the Channel in 2005 and then the first quadriplegic woman to sail around the Isle of Wight in 2007. Two years later she sailed solo around Britain.

From Dunkirk, near Canterbury, Kent, she was born able-bodied but had the degenerative condition reflex sympathetic dystrophy, which meant she used a wheelchair from the age of 15.