Lai Chi-wai became the first in Hong Kong to climb over 820 feet of a skyscraper while strapped into a wheelchair. He pulled himself up for more than 10 hours to raise money for spinal cord patients.

Chi-wai is 37. He became paralyzed from the waist down after a car accident 10 years ago.

He did not make it to the top of the 984 feet-tall Nina Tower on the Kowloon peninsula.

“I was quite scared,” Lai said. “Climbing up a mountain, I can hold onto rocks or little holes, but with glass, all I can really rely on is the rope that I’m hanging off.”

The event raised HK $5.2 million ($670,639) in donations.

Before his car accident, Chi-wai was crowned Asia champion four times for rock climbing. At one point he ranked eighth globally.

After his car accident, he began climbing again by attaching his wheelchair to a pulley system. Five years ago he climbed the 1,624-foot high Lion Rock mountain, a local folk culture symbol of Hong Kong’s strength and grit.

“Apart from just living, I wondered what drives me? So I began to chase that, knowing that there was a possibility I could climb mountains, even in a wheelchair,” Chi-wai said.

“In a way, I forgot that I was a disabled person, I could still dream and I could still do what I liked doing,” he added.

Even though he did not make it to the top of the skyscraper, Chi-wai hopes the event sent an inspirational message:

“Some people don’t understand the difficulties of disabled people, some people think that we are always weak, we need help, we need assistance, we need people’s pity,” Chi-wai said.

“But, I want to tell everyone, it doesn’t have to be like that. If a disabled person can shine, they can at the same time bring about opportunity, hope, bring about light, they don’t have to be viewed as weak.”