I Can Wheel It Coming In The Chair Tonight

It was a small and simple task, but one that could prove life changing for Ms A. Jo & I met up outside and were met by a little girl in the street asking us what we were up to... We either looked like approachable and engaging individuals or we looked a dodgy pair down the quiet cul-de-sac where Ms A lived!

We knocked on the door and Ms A told us to come in. Masked up and hands doubly sanitised (or quadruply, as there were two of us?), we were shown us the task at ask.

Ms A unfortunately had a neurological disorder which affects her mobility amongst other things, and most of the time she was confined to her wheelchair. Downstairs in the house she had an electric chair, which she would spend most of the day in, however at the end of the day when she took her stair lift up to bed. She often found she struggled to make the final bit of her journey from the stair lift to her room with her Zimmer frame. Her OT had suggested bringing her manual wheelchair up the stairs, and use that for the final leg.

It was an idea that Ms A had decided to trial, and where Jo and I stepped in. Jo and Ms A assessed the spiral staircase (and struggled with the joys of modern technology to get the stair lift seat out of the way), whereas I found the manual wheelchair and cleared it off and folded it up to get upstairs.

‘Little Lucy’ and Jo (alliteration being the only way to tell us apart) manoeuvred the chair upstairs, and to the left of her stair lift. Enough room for the stair lift to come up, but close enough to be able to get round to the wheelchair easily.

Job done, quickly and efficiently. In fact, too quickly and efficiently. Ms A seemed to be enjoying our company, and shared some photos from her youth, back when she used to ride motorbikes! ‘I love to share these pictures’ she told us, ‘show that there was more to me than being in this wheelchair’. They were great pictures. She also had a little lesson on the history of GoodGym, asking us about how we started out, before we were waved out with a classic lockdown elbow bump.

Another wheely good deed completed.