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.”