Meet Gabriel Cordell, The Inspirational Figure Rolling Around The World

Most people look at those with a disability as someone who needs to be taken care of and must not be given arduous tasks. Others also underestimate these people’s abilities and skills to do some activities, especially more physical ones. One person to have proven these notions wrong is Gabriel Cordell, an actor, and motivational speaker. He has become an inspiration to anyone who hears his story of grit and determination.

Gabriel was born in Tripoli, Libya but moved to New York in 1976 with his parents in order to pursue a better life. In 1992, on his way to his first professional audition, Gabriel was involved in a car accident that left him paralyzed from his midsection down, confining him to a wheelchair, at the age of 22. Gabriel tried to live as if he wasn’t any different from his peers, which also became a source of his many backslidings in the past.

At one point in his life, Gabriel became addicted to different substances like crystal meth and cocaine. However, he realized that his life was too precious to waste, and he wanted to do and experience many different things. Gabriel overcame the addiction, and just ten months after being rehabilitated, he was already rolling across North America. This rolling was literal as he used just his standard wheelchair to go from California to New York.

He accomplished this incredible feat in 2013 and traveled through 13 states and clocked over 3,100 miles. He did this on his wheelchair for a period of 100 days, something which regular people who have healthy limbs will never do. This journey became the main focus of the documentary Gabriel helped produce, entitled Roll With Me, which was released on Netflix in 2018.

After his amazing accomplishment in 2013, Gabriel continued using his wheelchair to inspire and send his message of hope to the world. In 2014, he rolled for peace in Israel by traveling from Haifa to Tel Aviv. He teamed up with the North Shore Animal League America in 2015 and rolled across Long Island, New York. Gabriel had his best moment in 2018 when he reached the summit of Pikes Peak Mountain.

Gabriel became one of the very few persons with disabilities to have ventured into trekking and mountain climbing using a manual wheelchair. He put millions of people in awe when he reached Pikes Peak Mountain’s summit of 14,115 feet. Gabriel became the first person in history to have rolled across North America and climbed Pikes Peak. When asked how he did this, he says that he used just pure sheer will and determination.

Gabriel’s incredible ventures received global attention, which resulted in being invited to speak at many conferences and talk shows on TV. When he produced the award-winning Netflix documentary called Roll With Me, he became even more popular and has had the opportunity to play in some popular TV shows. Gabriel believes that all things are achievable when the outcome solely relies on you and wanting anything means doing everything in your power to achieve it. The greatest gift we are born with is our “WILL” and the greatest gift we can give is the gift of inspiration.