Hilary Lister, a Quadriplegic Who Sailed Solo, Dies at 46

Many wayfarers blanch at the hardships of a lengthy solo sailing trip, but to Hilary Lister they were nothing compared with the torment of her living room couch.

Ms. Lister was relegated to her couch for years by a degenerative disease that rendered her immobile from the neck down and left her in near-constant pain. At one point the agony and tedium became too much to bear, and she resolved to end her life.

“I had been a very active person as a child,” she told The Sunday Telegraph of London in 2008. “I did sport. I played the clarinet. I went to Oxford University and studied biochemistry, and yet at that point I not only couldn’t do anything, but I was also in terrible pain. It’s so dull sitting here. I just couldn’t see the point in continuing, really.”

Then a friend persuaded Ms. Lister to come sailing, and she found a reason to live.

“I was out in the middle of the lake and I had the sensation of movement,” she said. “It was as if I was free.”

In time Ms. Lister became an adept sailor, skippering sailboats with mechanisms similar to those that control electric wheelchairs, and the choppy, chilly waters around England became her salvation.

She became the first quadriplegic person to sail alone across the English Channel, in 2005, and the first disabled woman to circumnavigate Britain solo, in 2009, according to World Sailing, the governing body for the sport.

Ms. Lister died on Saturday at a hospital in Ashford, Kent, England, her husband, Clifford Lister, said. She was 46.

The seas Ms. Lister conquered are known for mercurial weather and conditions that are arduous even for able-bodied sailors. Ms. Lister’s disability increased the challenge immeasurably.

She operated her sailboats by sipping on and puffing into straws connected to electronic mechanisms that controlled the vessels. One straw moved the tiller, turning the boat to port with a puff or starboard with a sip; another trimmed or let out the sails.

She sailed while strapped into a seat attached to the boat’s hull, and if she capsized, there was a good chance she would drown, even though she was trailed by a support boat on risky voyages.

The Ms. Lister’s physical condition made sailing even more treacherous. Her body struggled with thermoregulation, making hypothermia and overheating serious concerns. She was unable to go to the bathroom on a boat, which meant she could spend hours without relief. And she still experienced pain, which she said ranged from the sensation of sandpaper rasping her joints to that of knives piercing her.

“The adrenaline that kicks in on the water lifts me above it,” she told the British newspaper The Sunday Mirror in 2005.

Perhaps the greatest danger she faced during her trip around Britain was in being suddenly unable to breathe, which happened regularly at home and a few times during her journey. When it did, her support crew, following behind in a boat and keeping in touch by radio, would resuscitate her.

Regardless of the risks, Ms. Lister found sailing liberating.

“In my boat I’m finally out of my chair, and I feel like I’m flying,” she said. “Sailing has given me back a sense of freedom I never thought would be possible. It has, quite literally, saved my life.”

On Aug. 23, 2005, Ms. Lister sailed roughly 20 miles across the English Channel, one of the most crowded shipping lanes in the world, on a Soling keelboat, accomplishing the feat in 6 hours and 13 minutes. Two years later she became the first quadriplegic to circle the Isle of Wight, sailing about 50 miles in an Artemis 20 keelboat named Me Too.

Sailing around Britain proved more challenging. Ms. Lister planned to travel in increments, stopping at different ports along the way by night. She set sail from Dover in Me Too in 2008 but had to stop because of inclement weather and technical issues. She resumed the trek in 2009, and in June she and her support crew had to be rescued by the British coast guard in perilous weather off the Welsh Coast.

Ms. Lister completed her circumnavigation of Britain, a journey of more than 1,500 miles, at the end of August that year. British newspapers reported that she had raised about £30,000 (more than $38,000) for Hilary’s Dream Trust, a charity dedicated to providing sailing opportunities to disabled and underprivileged people.

Ms. Lister’s more recent adventures included sailing across the Arabian Sea in 2014, this time with a crew. She sailed until about a year and a half ago, when her illness made it impossible to continue.

Hilary Claire Rudd was born in Hook, in southern England, on March 3, 1972. Her father, Colin, was a vicar in the Church of England. Her mother, Pauline, was a biochemist at Oxford University.

She played rugby and hockey as a girl, and first noticed pain in her knees when she was a teenager. Doctors struggled to identify her ailment and prescribed treatments that may have worsened her condition. She was later given a diagnosis of reflex sympathetic dystrophy, and by 17 she was using a wheelchair.

Ms. Lister studied biochemistry at Jesus College, Oxford, but her declining health made it impossible for her to work as a biochemist. She became immobile from the neck down when she was 27.

She married Mr. Lister, a music teacher, in 1999. They separated in 2015.

In addition to Mr. Lister, she is survived by her parents; three brothers, Martin, Simon and Jonathan; a stepson, Alex; a stepdaughter, Anna; and two step-grandchildren.

Ms. Lister told The Telegraph in 2009 that the best way for her to endure her illness was to “live every second of every day to its maximum potential,” but also to accept the inevitable.

“Always look ahead, always assume you will live forever,” she continued, “and if you don’t, you don’t.”