Jan Mela

Jan "Jasiek" Mela (born December 30, 1988, in Gdańsk) is a Polish explorer who, as a teenage double amputee, was the youngest person to reach the North Pole in 2004, and eight months later the South Pole.

He created the Foundation "Poza horyzonty" Archived 2012-10-24 at the Wayback Machine ("Beyond the horizons").

In 2002, Jan was 13 years old and was playing table tennis with some school friends in his hometown of Malbork, Poland, when it suddenly started raining heavily.

The burns and tissue damage sustained meant surgeons had to amputate his left crus and right forearm.

After nine days of polar acclimatisation in Spitsbergen, Norway, the team began their 70 km trek on April 4, and received no outside assistance, relying solely on the supplies and gear they could pull on sleds.