I was interested to read in Kate Gordon’s inspiring Guest Blog on 9th June about a man confined to a wheelchair who had climbed Kilimanjaro. I am so pleased to live in an age in which modern technology combined with positive attitudes and sheer determination can make such a thing possible.
A couple of generations ago, people with his degree of disability were doomed to a life indoors – possibly even bedridden. I feel like celebrating whenever I hear of or see someone who breaks new ground by accomplishing something against all odds.
It might be something that would be considered quite normal, for someone without a disability. For example the other day, when I arrived back in Canterbury West station, I saw a guy in the car park going round bagging up the rubbish in all the bins. Nothing special, you might think, but he was zooming from bin to bin in an electric wheelchair. I am so pleased that thanks to having the right gadgetry, that he has been enabled to hold such a job.
I had a chuckle a couple of years ago, when I was ‘liberating’ a few apples in the orchards near my home. There are acres of apple and pear orchards in my area of Kent, and the farmers never pick all of the fruit, so I regularly help myself to what’s left and often redistribute it to friends. Jae’s boys enjoy joining in this activity, sometimes even engaging in apple fights at the end of the year. My chuckle was caused by seeing a man on a mobility scooter moving through the orchard, filling his carrier bag as he went. I love my meanders through the orchards and I rejoice that these days it is possible for him too to do something that gives me such pleasure.
I was lucky enough to get taken on as a volunteer driver during the Paralympic Games in London in August 2012. Being a “Games Maker” was one of the most exciting things I have done in my life – though I have to admit that the prospect of climbing Kili does outrank even that great experience. I drove all sorts of people around the London area, including a young Japanese girl who was a gold medal winner, Mr Cycling Australia (I forget his real name, but you get the gist), various referees and officials and high-flying people from the media. It was absolutely inspiring to meet some of the competitors and to see how people helped each other. For example I was sitting outside the Paralympic Village one evening in my BMW, when I saw a train of about a dozen wheelchairs appear, all attached to each other. The person at the front had a super fast electric wheelchair and all the rest were in normal unpowered wheelchairs. The guys behind were holding on to the handles of the chair in front and the whole chain of them went careering across the road in front of me at some speed, heading towards the Stratford shopping centre. They all had great grins on their faces and we drivers leaned out of our windows to wave at them and smile with them.
However, the person who gets the most respect from me for her diligent embrace of all available technology and for her sheer determination not to be defeated, lives rather closer to home. She is Jae’s mother-in-law Pat, who has Motor Neurone Disease. Pat can neither walk, nor talk because of this horrendous illness, but uses machinery to make it possible for her to live independently. Pat is very adept at steering her electric wheelchair to wherever she can possibly get it and takes real pleasure in being able to go out for ‘walks’. She has found a taxi company, which has a taxi with a ramp, so she can drive her chair into the taxi, having texted the taxi controller in advance with details of pick up time and where she wants to go.
A very useful piece of her equipment is a ‘talking’ machine, happily provided by the good old NHS. Pat types into it what she wants to say and when she presses a button, the machine both speaks her words and displays them on a screen. She and I recently visited a friend who had just turned 100, but was a bit hard of hearing. Pat joked afterwards about how it was useful to have me along as an interpreter for the woman who couldn’t hear and the woman who couldn’t speak!!! The friend was too deaf to hear what the machine said, so I had to repeat all Pat’s words at top volume. The necessary loud repetition and the delay for typing didn’t make for easy communication, but we got there. Pat compared it to an old “Two Ronnies” sketch – always a sentence behind!
So here’s to the guy who climbed Kili in a wheel chair, to Pat and to all the many other people who daily defy people’s expectations by their determination to get on with their lives against all odds and to make jokes about it all too. Good on you!
Note from Sheila: Sadly I’ve just learnt that, in the few days between our visit and this post going to press, Pat’s 100 year old friend has passed away. Our sympathies are with her family and friends.