Lots of Adventures, now back to the Wheelchair

Wow! It’s been over two months since I last updated the mountain wheelchair build log!

Several things have attributed to this. For one, I’ve been busy in work. Also, I bought a Land Rover Defender back in April as a means to get Ada back into the mountains. When I bought the Defender I didn’t realise how much of my time would be taken up trying to keep it running. I’ve had to replace so many parts that it’s almost an entirely different car. It’s been absolutely worth it though because thanks to the Defender I’ve been able to get Ada (and myself) back into the great outdoors.

Thanks to the Defender we don’t have to walk far to get that mountain experience, which is good because Ada still gets very tired and whilst we’re out walking her legs will often give way without any warning.

When this happens it usually means that I have to carry her back to the car. This is not always an easy task and has lead to many improvised carrying devices using whatever is to hand at the time. Accordingly, we try to plan our adventures based on how much we think Ada is able to achieve but this can vary from one day to the next.

That being said though, her health is constantly improving and each month she is able to do more than the last. Having the Defender has, in my opinion, had a huge influence on this! It’s made getting outdoors much easier and spurred us on from one adventure to the next:

As I proof-read this post, it’s great to see so many photos of Ada smiling again!

Last week Ada did the biggest walk (6km) since being diagnosed with M.E. Compared to where we were this time last year, this is such an enormous change. It was only in December that we had tears of Joy when Ada was able to stand on her own two legs again.

We’ve even done some multi-pitch climbing!

Ada’s happy, she’s enjoying life, and that has always been the driving force behind the mountain wheelchair project. Having achieved that goal, where does this leave the mountain wheelchair?

We have been so incredibly lucky to see continued improvements but this isn’t the case for everybody. There are so many other people who could benefit from the wheelchair that it would be doing a tremendous disservice to discontinue the build. So with this in mind, watch this space…

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