I was born with a congenital disability (1973) & had my leg amputated at seven months old. All in all, I have had a privileged upbringing. I swam & I played wheelchair basketball at regional & international level. Will my ladt tournament being part of the Great Britail Paralympic wheelchair team at Atlanta 1996.My disability was stable until i gained a back injury in 2000, seven months after i married my husband resulting in severe back pain, loss of feeling in the stumps I had.

Until last year (2017) I had always used a manual wheelchair pushing myself independantly. Due to severe back pain my Pain Clinic Consultant & physiotherapist advised me to transition to a powerchair. It took many weeks of wrestling with my conscience & losing the independence I has built for myself & rely on my husband more & more. My husband gave up work to be my full time carer due to the medication I now take, I am unable to drive.

The power chair I have on prescription (Quickie Salsa Mini M2) through the NHS. A year on from using this power chair & a breakdown experience I have realised I require a back up powerchair to enable me to continue with my everyday tasks whist my main chair is being fixed.

The breakdown experience of only having to use my manual chair for 48 hours only as the parts had arrived for another persons chair thus resulting in that person had to wait longer for their chair to be repaired as mine was deemed as an emergancy as we was moving home that week!!

Using a manual chair with my disability increases back, shoulder & hand pain. I have already had both hands operated on to try & eliviate the pain but it did not last for very long. Unfortunetely with no fault on the NHS, wheelchair services chair parts can take up to three weeks to arrive & then to arrange the home repair.

If I am able to raise £630 to have an emergency/back up portable chair it would mean i wouldnt be cooped up in my home, in pain but to continue to be enabled to have my small amount of independence I have now with using a powerchair.

A portable power chair would also enable me to go out & about with family & friends as the chair can be dismantled into piece & put into a car boot. Presently I have to rely on my husband to take me wherever I am meeting friends. Until I had my power chair when using a manual chair I could go further afield as I could transfer into a ‘normal’ car. For instance I went to Lincolnshire on a hen weekend my husband drove me. Returned home & went back for me 3 days later as my current power chair cannot be put into a car & has to be winched up the ramp to my WAV. (Wheelchair Accessible Vehicle.)

A £620 portable power chair through Livewell (https://livewelltoday.co.uk/easy-split-powerchair.html) would meet my needs as an emergency back up chair & enable me to have days out with friends as it will dismantle to fit into their car.

Please if you are in a position to donate to my cause it will be greatly appreciated as the proverb says.....look after the pennies and the pounds will look after themselves is very true in this situation.

Thank you for reading my story

Zoë x