My story could be anyone's story if life decides to take a new direction. If you have a 'normal' life, savour it, it can be taken away at any time.

My body can't readily be repaired but donors to this fundraiser are helping patch life up again after I experienced a decade of deteriorating health, as Asthma, Eczema, Rheumatoid Arthritis, Fibromyalgia, Osteoarthritis and Temporal Lobe Epilepsy got their teeth into me. I was feeling cut off and in the midst of a traumatic crisis as it all had a devastating effect on me. The effects on life from a range of serious and challenging health conditions can be catastrophic.

For a while I couldn't imagine a place in the world for me, but this fundraiser is defining a way forward. Time is precious, and though I don't have definitive answers to my mosaic of health conditions, endeavoring to get of one these Extreme 8 all-terrain wheelchairs (pictured above) is at least a way forward. The past doesn't have to define the future.

(Above is my Granddad and I enjoying nature before I was even 3)

By supporting this fundraiser you're not only allowing light back into my life and getting me working more fully again, but letting light back into the life of clients who take benefit from my work out in nature. Helping them with personal growth, development and connection with nature. They often came to restore balance and focus to their life, and my work used to be a perfect opportunity to step away from the frantic pace of modern living, and to rediscover the nature on their doorstep. The all-terrain wheelchair we're fundraising for isn't just a nice thing for me to have, it will have a big impact on my clients life too.

Over the years I've engaged around 20,000 clients with my various work in nature, and it would be great to engage the same amount over the coming years. To continue with this fundraising journey and securing the funds to now also purchase the all-terrain wheelchair will help me to feel I'm fully able to be contributing to society again, and to continue the positive impact on other peoples lives my work has, from:

Making nature part of daily life is a good first step to people starting to protect it and that's the core of my work. When you know you're making the world a better place, it makes life's challenges and hard the days easier.

The first chair the Q50R (detailed above), in a world full of barriers, gives me a sanctuary to start working from again, and enables active networking to generate more work opportunities, and secure further donations towards purchasing the other wheelchair that's needed, the all-terrain Extreme 8 (pictured below) that will be relied upon to continue to undertake my outdoor education work.

This all-terrain chair will enable me to lift myself up to be in the eyeline of those I'm engaging and working with, and also has a laying back mechanism too for when that function is needed to complete the work.

Other funds successfully previously generated, has enabled the purchase of an OrCam Digital Reader and voice recognition software (thanks must go to Access To Work too as they assisted with this). I sometimes struggle to coordinate the motor skills to accurately type, and to read and interpret text. So this software, the reader (pictured below) and the initial wheelchair has already changed life and will hopefully help make some dreams and ambitions come true.

These new devices will certainly help protect my physical and mental wellbeing and safeguard the business I have built up over the years, as well as making me realise my life is still warranted.

Donors to this fundraiser are already wheeling me forward to a brighter future, and building a life support machine that makes me feel safe and supported and makes me smile from a deep place of happiness. It helps make life worthwhile and feels like people have joined hands and caught me.

It all helps lead to me getting back my sense of self-worth after a period of feeling lost and not thinking I was worth anything, and getting to know myself again.

I have surprised myself with some remarkable resilience that was needed to adjust to life with symptoms that have been physical, mental and emotional at times. I've always tried to show initiative and determination to be personally and financially independent, and both my health and livelihood is in peril until I get the Extreme 8 all-terrain wheelchair.

When the all-terrain wheelchair is also purchased, I will be better able to get back out working in and contributing through nature. Dedicating more time and helping inspire more people to feel empowered to explore the environment around them.

Through the Wow Effect (Wildman On Wheels - my alter ego is The Wildman) the aim is also to show that even if you have a green space you can enjoy within 15 minutes of where you live, is that space really accessible if you are in a wheelchair or have another disability and can't get in when you arrive? I've already realised that, even with the wheelchairs, I'm not going to be able to access some of the green spaces nearest to me. We need to reframe the understanding of accessible countryside for people with cognitive, mobility, visual, hearing and other impairments. Inclusion shouldn't be the exception, and in a world obsessed with health and safety and risk averse, we need to reimagine how we measure risk. The societal collective rewards are there if we succeed in breaking down the barriers preventing people enjoying nature, in all its forms.

Ultimately we want to collaborate with the Earth Trust in Oxfordshire, to make them an accessibility hub nationally. Showcasing it doesn't have to cost the earth to make nature accessible. Small changes make a big difference. We need to help everyone get out into nature.

In February 2024, I paid another investigative visit to the Earth Trust, to give the Q50R a test run around the site, to really see what it is truly capable of. Ahead of a series of bookable guided nature sensory events that are being developed in partnership with the Earth Trust.

Nobody asks to have their dignity taken away from them and its not easy asking for help in a way that rebuilds a life in a dignified way, that confronts the hidden challenges. This is about asking for an opportunity not charity, in the pursuit of a normal life again. We have much needed momentum now and its about finding value in the simple things, and looking for a future together. Its about getting independence back and being independent again.

The facility has been enabled to make monthly donations, which means you as a donor can set up regular payments to support our cause. Though you'll still be able to make those single donations on a one off basis if you wish. Your support enables you to be part of the journey and continuing to make nature's voice heard through my varied work.

You can also enjoy the warm glow from knowing you are involved and supporting something that brings meaningful personal nature connections to a diverse range of people's lives, in unlimited settings.

Your support ensures the continued breakdown of the disability barriers faced in providing the Wildman Environmental Learning service. To continue to meaningfully take the benefits of being out in nature, and an awareness of the natural world around us to wider audiences, is particularly important at a time when we all know a connection with nature has benefits on multiple levels.

A great level has been reached through this work, but we want to make that even more impactful, whilst still rolling that out sustainably.

You can play a key role in us expanding our established 'Get WEL' with Wildman Environmental Learning concept, and help us further evolve 'The WOW Effect', aka Wildman On Wheels.

This is an opportunity for some smart aspirations which allows me to rebuild my life. I don't want to be anyone's inspiration, I just want to feel I'm contributing something of value to someone or something, whatever that may be.

Together we can engage more people with the natural world, one wheel revolution at a time.

Many Thanks.