I am a wheelchair user, thankfully I have always needed to use a wheelchair that did not happen until I was the ripe old age of 35. Now it came as a shock the first time I seen myself in a wheelchair. Which was in the reflection of the window in the hospital. The reality of disability hit home hard.

It was not until I met and talked to other wheelchair users did I come to accept it, not that I will ever feel totally natural but it is now managable and I thank God that it is today when there is disabled parking, shops are accessibble. It does make me think how did people cope with a disability 30 years ago when there was no such thing as The Disability Discrimination act.

Orginally I used a bulky steel ‘NHS style’ wheelchair with side arms on, I did not even know the arms detached and I used to launch myself out of the chair into the car and hold onto the handbrake or anything I could grab hold of in the car. Very undignified and very dangerous.

Now I use a lightweight wheelchair with detachable sides, so getting into a car is far more dignified using a side ways sliding action and a little help. However the first time I used my lightweight  chair I nearly flipped it over as the force I used was that from my old bulky chair so I needed to reduce the energy I put into wheeling myself around.

Two weeks later, 4 tonnes of hardcore and a further 4 tonnes of sand and cement the building work of my ramp is completed. Now it sounds like a big construction job and it was but it has empowered my ability to be able to get out of the house on my own.We had the front levelled out and a discreet ramp fitted.

No longer do I need a helping hand to go over the thrsehold.
I do not even need handles on my wheel chair!

I have a level access door which basically means it is like a standard double glazed door without the 3 inch step to get in and out! ow for anybody that uses a self propelled wheelchair they know what a difference this can make. In the last week I have been out everyday even if it is just to catch some of the very little sun we have in the UK.

I have met neighbours I have never seen before, went round to my neighbours for a coffee! I basically went out the house wheel round and they were in the back and surpised to see me so we had a coffee!   So my new ramp is more than just a ramp it has becomne a way of life!

Now our bathroom to wet room conversion is complete I thought I would let you how it has all gone.

In my last post I explained what I thought the wet room conversion could do for me. The most important thing was getting some dignity and independence back. As a wheelchair user, my regular bathroom was just not suitable and made life unnecessarily difficult. I am glad to say that the new wet-room has lived up to and exceeded my expectations.

While the work was being done, the house was a bit chaotic as quite a lot of building work needed to be done. For example the door to be made wider, the airing cupboard had to be removed and a wall was reinforced for fitting grab rails . Now I don’t have to do a really tricky manoeuvre to get into the room; there is plenty of space to just roll in.

So that a pedestal-free wash basin could be mounted on the wall, the existing stud partition wall had to be made stronger. This also meant that grab rails could be fixed firmly to the shower wall.

With no bath in the room, there is so much space. Before, if I went in forwards I had to go out backwards; now I can turn around 360 degrees!

I can now reach things on shelves without asking for things to be passed to me. I can even see myself in the new low-down mirror (some would say this is not a good thing!)

The sink has taps with easy grip handles that I can turn easily. The shower controls are low down and very easily to operate.

I have a new self propelled shower chair. All I do is transfer into this (it is like a wheelchair, but very lightweight and the seat is like a toilet seat) then roll straight under the shower. The first time I had a shower in the new wet-room it was quite emotional. I hadn’t been able to get a shower in over 3 years, so to have a proper shower was just amazing. I stayed there for quite a while – I think my wife thought I had taken root! I really can’t explain how good it is too feel running water again.

The shower chair is great as it means I can also use the toilet easily. I just roll over it, with no need for a transfer onto the toilet. This makes life MUCH easier!

I am very pleased with the new room as it not only helps me immensely, but it doesn’t look like a ‘disabled’ bathroom. I worked closely with the workmen and have exactly what I wanted and needed. I didn’t want something that looked like it belongs in an hospital in my home. Just because I have a disability doesn’t mean I don’t have taste!

I am now in control of my own personal hygiene. That is priceless!

When you see someone using a wheelchair or scooter – do you ever see past their wheels to stop and think why they need help with their mobility?

I was one of those people who saw someone in a wheelchair and thought they had always used it and used it all the time.

When I started to use a wheelchair myself, I did so because I couldn’t walk far or stand for long. Using a wheelchair made life so much easier. It meant I could get out of the house and do things like everyone else. One day I was in a clothes shop and stood up to reach something I wanted to look at. As I stepped out of my wheelchair, there was a woman next to me whose face said it all. She thought I was a fraud, and how dare I use a wheelchair if I could stand up!

This made me think. People who use mobility aids do so for so many reasons.

• Getting older
• Sporting injury
• Accident
• Medical condition or disability

And mobility problems can be from birth, is a degenerative condition, or can become a problem at anytime in someone’s life.

No one wants help with doing everyday things. Sometimes though, using a simple aid can make a huge difference. Whether it is a bathing aid, kitchen aid or walking aid, if it helps you get more out of life, gives you more confidence and helps you to be safer – then it has to be a good thing.

I heard a woman commenting about a mobility scooter user. She was saying that they were just being lazy. They could walk “fine”. She didn’t stop and think about why they were using a mobility scooter. I don’t know what the reason was either, but just because you can walk it doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t use mobility equipment. Without using a scooter that person may have had to stay in the house that day. No one should be prevented from getting the most out of their life by disability or age.

As a young person I was reluctant to use mobility aids and equipment. I was wrong and am so glad I changed my view. Sometimes disability is not visible, so people don’t offer to help you. I found that in this situation a walking stick not only helped me to get about, but it was also a sign to everyone else that I was unsteady on my feet. Before I used my walking stick I just looked drunk when I walked. When I used my stick I had so much more confidence as I no longer looked drunk, I looked like I had problems walking. Passers by were not judging me anymore. My disability was visible.

After struggling for too long with bathing and even getting into our bathroom, we are finally turning our bathroom into a wet-room.

I am a wheelchair user and the bathroom is the most difficult room to use. Everything is designed for someone who is able-bodied. I have lots of mobility aids; like a bath board, shower chair, handgrips and rails, which have made a difference, but it is still just far too difficult.

The problems we have at the moment.

• The furniture – the toilet and the sink are in the wrong place.
• I can’t easily get into the bath which has a shower over it.
• I can’t roll my wheelchair properly under the sink as the pedestal gets in the way.
• The bathroom cabinet goes above the sink – but it just too high.
• The toilet is too close to the wall at the side.
• The controls for the shower are too high.
• The bath takes up so much room, and this means that there is so little space left that I can’t turn my wheelchair around once I am in the bathroom.
• The door is only just wide enough for me to roll through.

I am hoping the new wet-room and adaptations will help with the following:

• A wider door will let me get into the room more easily.
• A completely flat floor, will mean I can just roll under the shower.
• A sink with no pedestal will mean my wheelchair will fit underneath comfortably.
• A toilet that has plenty of room all around it will help me with transfers.
• Sensible grab-rails that are in the right place for me will make a huge difference. Not only so I keep my balance in the shower (when I shut my eyes I feel dizzy, so being able to hold on to a grab-rail with one hand while I wash my hair will be invaluable) but also so I can transfer to the toilet more easily..
• No bath – so there will be so much more room to move.
• Shelves and storage that I can reach will be so helpful.
• Shower controls that I can operate myself will be an obvious but important help.

I am looking forward to the new wet-room. Instead of asking for help all the time, (or worse, not being able to wash myself) – I will get my independence and dignity back.

Once the building work is done, I will write another article reviewing how good (or bad) the new wet-room is.

It’s bad enough that I need to use mobility aids – but why do they so often have to look so ugly?

I am young (I’m in my 30’s) and I need help in the house. I have done for 3 years, and about 2 years ago I decided it was high time to stop struggling and do something about it.

I had two choices.

I could get a carer to come in and do loads and loads of things for me. This was not practical – the cost would be huge and my dignity, self respect and independence would have gone out of the window.

I could get some mobility aids to help me do the things that I  needed to do, but had difficulty doing on my own.

Really, I had no choice. I had to get some mobility aids. However, when I looked through magazines and the internet for equipment I needed – I was depressed and shocked. I didn’t want to live with such ugly equipment around me. Just because I have a disability doesn’t mean I don’t have taste.

Everything seemed to be so basic, have absolutely no design qualities and often was made out of ugly grey plastic. OK, they probably did the job. You could argue that mobility aids don’t need to look good they heed to help people get more out of their lives. I wasn’t satisfied with that though. I wanted choice. So many choices had been taken away from me. I wanted control over how my house looked. I didn’t want my Fiancée living amongst such awful aids either. Just looking at some equipment made me feel very old and disabled. No one should be made to feel like that by a piece of plastic. It’s so unnecessary.

My advice is shop around for mobility aids. Sometimes you can be pleasantly surprised. Chrome seems to be cropping up more and more. Manufacturers seem to be taking more care in how items look, not just what they do. I read that 1 in 3 people in the UK are disabled or are close to somebody who has a disability. [Source: Office of National Statistics Census 2001] And that the 10 million disabled people who live in the UK have a combined annual spending power of over £80 billion. [Source: DWP 2004] No longer do we have to make do with aids that other people say we have to use. We have the power to say no, and that we want better.

Some people will just need 1 or 2 mobility aids to make a big difference in their life. Others need so much more. Sometimes social services will help, sometimes not. My advice is always shop around for what is best for you and what you are happy using.

A year ago my world turned upside down. My husband had a stroke and was hospitalized for months. Every day I visited him in hospital. He wasn’t the man I married. Even though I knew him so well, I couldn’t understand what he was saying. He couldn’t walk, eat by himself, or dress himself. It was so demoralising for him, I could see it in his face. I could barely watch him.

I never thought that he would make the recovery that he has. Intensive physiotherapy has helped so much. Everyday it looked like he was being tortured, but in reality the wonderful staff were helping him regain his life back.

Today, he has been home for a couple of months. He can walk a little. I can understand what he is trying to tell me. He still has huge problems, but he is so much better than I thought he could ever be.

I am glad it is getting warmer. I bought him a mobility scooter, which he loves. He tends to just go to the park, which is only about a mile away. He sits and watches the world go by. He says he prefers it to his electric wheelchair. He says he feels safer and more in control. He says he feels more like it is a vehicle that he is riding and not an extension of him, which is what the wheelchair made him feel like. I go with him sometimes, and can easily walk beside him. I would get on my bicycle and go with him but to be honest there is a hill on the way to the park. It’s easy in his scooter, but I don’t fancy cycling up it!

Things at home are not easy. He has a carer that comes in to help twice a day. She helps him get washed, dressed and up for the day. Our house now has more mobility aids than I care to count. All of them help him do the everyday things that he and I used to just take for granted. From beakers with lids to drink out of, and cutlery that is specially designed to help him not to drop and actually eat his food. We have a bath lift for the bath and he relies on the grab rail on our bed for help getting in and out. His tablet dispenser is simple but it helps him take his own medication instead of me always having to remember what pill to take when.

All in all life is totally and completely different to a year ago. Our priorities have changed. Now we live for every precious moment. My only worry now is that he doesn’t use his scooter to go to the pub to watch the World Cup!

Sometimes life is easy. I have MS, so – like with lots of illnesses – I have good days and bad days. Today is a good day, so I am writing this article about a day last month.

It was Tuesday, and I was struggling to do so many things. The co-ordination, strength and control my right hand was next to useless. I am right-handed so I knew things would be difficult.

It started with getting dressed. I had to find my shoes that just slip-on and have no laces or buckles. Tying up laces would have been a joke, I’m glad I didn’t attempt that one. I didn’t put any make-up on, I like to when I go out, but with one hand that didn’t quite go where I told it to go, I didn’t want to look like a clown!

Breakfast was next. Everything was fine, until I was putting spread on my toast. I dropped the knife twice. My grip just didn’t hold on right. I’ve seen knives that have special grips, that I know would help. But have I got around to getting some? I’ll let you answer that one!

I should have put jam on my toast; I have a gadget that would have helped with that. Well, I have two gadgets actually. The first is a cone shape and is corrugated on the inside. It is made out of a bendy rubber. You hold it over the jar grip and turn. Hey presto, the jar opens easily. This one would not have been right for me on that day. But the other one I have would have been perfect. It is a handle with a strap on one end. You tighten the strap around the lid, then twist. The lid opens.

I made do with my toast and coffee. I only spilt a few coffee granules off the spoon.

I had planned to go to the supermarket that day, and wasn’t going to let my wonky right hand stop me. It is in walking distance, so I set off. No incidents on the way there – phew! I didn’t really have any problems in the store either.

Getting home is always difficult. I use a walking stick to help my balance, but had to hold my stick in the ‘wrong’ hand. Holding it in my right hand just felt awkward and didn’t feel secure at all. My shopping goes on my back in a ruck sack. I find this is the best way, as it keeps me balanced evenly, and leaves my hands free.

Once home with the shopping put away, it was time for a cup of coffee. Yes, you guessed; I poured boiling water on to the floor. I didn’t think. I just grabbed the kettle with my right hand as usual. My hand wasn’t co-ordinated enough to get the water in the cup. I have now bought a kettle tipper. It is just not worth any more near misses. It is great. The best way to describe it is that the kettle fits into a wire cage, that allows you to tip it forward safely.

After a few days, my ‘bad day’ got better and became a good day. I’ve yet to find a decent corkscrew that I can use on those bad days!

This morning I cut my finger nails!

This time last year it was a simple task I could not carry out. It sounds crazy but nail clippers are small, shiny, slippery objects and very difficult to hold, combined with a lack of co-ordination it became a risk to either cutting my fingers off, losing the nail clippers or getting somebody else to cut them for me. I ended up referring to the latter much to my disappointment.

Most people take a simple tasks like cutting their finger nails for granted and I was one of them until I could not do it. I would hold the clippers in one hand, rest against a table and insert the nail to be cut, Missed! As the clippers shot out my hand, no nail was cut and I had to look to find where the clippers had ended up!

The bureaucracy had gone mad as my carer was unable to cut my nails, due to health and safety! So my nails got longer and longer. I was thinking of entering the Guiness book of records, I had nails the length a young woman would love but not a young man. I was still stuck with the problem of how to cut my own nails!

I then discovered the best mobility aids I had seen, it was simple. A pair of nail clippers mounted on a sturdy board, you place your finger in and press down, click that was one finger done and in 5 minutes I had cut all my own fingernails! An incredible little gadget that ensured I was able to look after my own personal grooming without the need for somebody else or a carer to tell me a list of reasons why they could not cut my nails.

There is actually a wide range of gadgets especially designed for people with different needs and it was not until I started looking did I see how many variations there are available. Nail clippers for people witha arthritis, desk mounted nail clippers, extra large nail clippers. You name it, it was there somebody else had the same problem as me and a company created a solution to the problem.

On this website I think you will find a lot of solutions to problems and gadgets you never thought existed!

This article is written by a carer and is a lesson for us all.

When you suffer from an illness or condition, be it Parkinsons, arthritis, MS, a stroke – to name but a few, or you are just getting older and less able, it is everyone around you that has to make adjustments in their life as well.

A partner’s role changes, so does that of a parent, sibling, or child. Sometimes the carer gets forgotten amongst all the things that are happening to their loved one. Your husband or wife may find they are doing more and more for you, likewise anyone else whom you live with. Children can be confused or frightened at what is happening to their mum or dad. Just as life has changed for you, everyone around you is making adjustments and changes too.

Remember disability does not just affect you but everybody around you that loves and cares for you.

Sometimes you can make things easier for your carer, and in turn help yourself too.

Think about how life has changed for your carer. They probably just do things without ever thinking about it. They love you so they just get on with it.
But are they?

• Taking you to more visits to the doctor, physio or hospital?
• Helping you more with your personal care
• Spending more time lifting and fetching things for you?

If they are, there is no need at all for you to feel guilty about this. They love you and would do anything to help you,  just as you would if the tables were turned. My husband needs much more help than he did 5 years ago, much of my time is spent helping him get the quality of life he deserves, and I don’t mind at all. He does as much for himself as he can, which helps him mentally, as it helps me physically.

There are things you can do to make their lives as easy as possible though.

There are some things that become impossible, or just too difficult or painful. Other things can be achieved with a little helping hand. Have a look at our mobility aids, they can take some pressure off your carer and help you keep as much of your independence as possible.

• If you can’t reach the floor, a grabber can mean you can get something you have dropped yourself.
• If you can’t get into the bath on your own, a bath seat might mean your carer is not lifting you as much,
  so placing less strain on their back.
• If you want to visit the doctor and not ask someone else to drive you, a mobility scooter might solve your problems.

The more you do the more in control of your illness or disability you become.