HE lives the life of a movie action hero, leaping from planes, skiing down treacherous black runs, scuba diving through coral reefs or crossing dusty plains in deepest Africa.
There have been mornings when Brian Thomson has been a little bored, when he's picked up the phone and called a friend in Australia. Two days later he's been on his way Down Under.
Then again, he might have been hit with a sudden thought to head somewhere just as exotic - to go diving in Sharm El Sheikh; drive across Europe and down to Africa in a rattling Land Rover; or just do something else extreme, hair-raising, challenging and maybe just a little bit crazy.
It sounds a thrilling existence, yet there are also days when Brian wakes with the world pressing heavy on his shoulders, defeated by the memory of how it was to actually walk across the room, and when he didn't have to rely on his wheelchair to get around.
He remembers with a pang the days before he was crushed beneath a 16-ton tour truck. "I knew straight away that I'd never walk again," recalls Brian, 39, as he wheels his chair around his North Berwick home. "I knew that was life as I knew it, over.
"I couldn't feel my legs, I was in terrible pain and I was thinking about my mum and dad and my then girlfriend, and what it all would mean for everyone. I was thinking that my life was irreparably changed, forever."
It was 2001, and Brian, an ex-soldier, firefighter and scaffolder, was 34-years-old and working as a tour guide driving tourists from Nairobi in Kenya to Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe when his truck ground to a halt.
There was no choice but to jack the vehicle up and crawl underneath to attend to the suspension springs himself.
But as he lay under the truck, the jack broke, bringing the vehicle crashing down on him, crushing his ribs, snapping one vertebra and severely damaging two others.
Yet while his injuries were to leave him a paraplegic, they have not stopped him from continuing to lead a remarkable, action-packed life.
In a bizarre quirk of fate, the horrific accident is now helping Brian to pursue lifelong dreams to travel the world experiencing adventure, action and excitement.
"You're there in hospital after this and a guy from Spinal Injuries Scotland comes along as says 'You will have a life' and you say 'Aye, right'," recalls Brian, gazing towards the scene of his next ambitious challenge, the volcanic peak of North Berwick Law.
"Now I can tell people that it is true, that life can be worthwhile," he says. "To be honest, there are aspects of my life that are not good, and there are others which are absolutely great.
"There's really not much that I can't do, and OK, I have to adapt things a bit but I can still do them."
Certainly, being paralysed from the hips down has been no barrier to thrilling new challenges, whether it's learning to ski and scuba dive, riding on the back of an elephant, paragliding, parachuting, white-water rafting or flying a microlite.
Now there's Brian's latest, slightly bizarre venture: scaling the volcanic heights of the rocky crest that overshadows his Lochbridge Road home.
Remarkably, he will "climb" North Berwick Law sitting down and pushing himself backwards up the 613ft incline - partly to conquer a personal challenge but mostly to raise money for a fellow spinal injuries sufferer, local rugby captain Jonny Mitchell, left paralysed from the neck down after a freak accident when a scrum came together.
"I know 'bumming' your way up North Berwick Law doesn't sound very dignified," laughs Brian, "but it's something I feel I've got to do now. I look at it every day - it's right outside my window.
"One day I just thought, I'll have a party for my 40th birthday, and because I've never been up there since before my accident, I'd like to go up again."
He plans to set off on July 18 for what he expects to be a gruelling six-hours backwards shuffle, his lower half padded against the sharp rocks and constant dragging.
At the top, Brian will set up camp to watch the sunset, toasting the passing of his 39th year and the dawning of a fourth decade.
"I'm hoping that by morning a few people will have joined me up there and we'll have a bit of a party," he smiles.
"It's going to be physically really hard, but it's for a good reason." Donations in support of his challenge will go to the Jonny Mitchell Trust Fund.
Only someone who has been through the horrors of being told that he is paralysed - someone like Brian - can possibly understand what the North Berwick rugby player has gone through.
"Initially you just don't know what your capabilities are," he says. "What I have learned over five years is that you've got to get out of your comfort zone.
"Sometimes I've wanted to do things but couldn't because I felt self-conscious, because I thought I'd look stupid. But I've learned that you must throw your dignity away and have a go."
Brian was only a few months out of the spinal injuries unit of Glasgow's Southern General Hospital, at the end of six months recuperation there, when he set himself his first major challenge: driving a specially adapted Land Rover from Cape Town to Nairobi.
The gruelling journey took nine months. It was, Brian admits, a journey designed to push his abilities, to see how much punishment his broken body could handle.
"It was a hard journey and I think I was trying to prove to myself - more than anyone else - that I was still worth something," he explains.
That journey was a launch pad for a string of achievements. Since then there have been other trips around Africa, action packed journeys to Iceland, skiing in Colorado and diving in the Great Barrier Reef.
Closer to home, Brian has become a familiar figure riding through North Berwick on a specially adapted bike, or strapped into his camouflage coloured calipers, leaning on crutches and gradually making his way to the local for a pint.
"Of course it pi**** me off to be like this, absolutely," he declares angrily. "There are aspects of my life that are completely horrible. It's not exactly easy to find a girlfriend either.
"Everyone in this position will say they would rather be able to walk, but they also say you have got to get on with it.
"There are aspects of my life that are not so bad," Brian adds.
"I have time to travel and, now the court case against my former employers has been settled, I have the money to go where I want.
"So there are positives to being in this position too." Relaxing on the summit of North Berwick's famous landmark and toasting his birthday with his friends will be one. But, never one to do things by half, Brian has another trick up his sleeve.
"Well, if I'm going up there the hard way, I'd like to avoid having to come down the same way," he says."Yes, I'm thinking I might just paraglide down - that would be much more fun."
Please check out
www.sisonline.org/pages/newstwelve.html and the following
www.justgiving.com/BerwickLaw for more details.
I plan to be at Berwick Law myself to watch this attempt.
I myself have driven and cycled past Berwick Law many times but never climbed the hill. So this will give me the excuse to climb this hill. Or should I say volcanic rock.
This what berwick Law looks like.
I hope these picture will give you a better idea of what Brian Thomson is going to climb.
And all going to plan I shall be their to support him on this climb. And also to provide photos of his climb for you to enjoy.
Neil