This summer, Paralympic champion Lady Tanni Grey-Thompson sat in a wheelbarrow outside parliament to demonstrate how limiting it is to have the wrong wheelchair, and to raise awareness of how variable the quality of NHS wheelchair services across the UK can be.
According to the Papworth Trust, about 8% of the UK’s 11.9 million people with disabilities use a wheelchair – that’s around 950,000 people. Yet, due to the disparity in NHS provision, many who cannot afford to buy their own specially adapted wheelchair must make do with cumbersome, one-size-fits-all chairs, which can lead to health problems both for the user and for the carers who have to lift them.
One person whose life has recently been transformed is Jade, a 19-year-old litigation executive. She is unable to walk unaided, due to her cerebral palsy, so she needs a lightweight, modified chair to enable her to be as independent as any other young person starting their professional life. Having outgrown the wheelchair she had been using since she was 13, Jade looked for a replacement – but, despite receiving vouchers from the council’s wheelchair service towards the cost of an NHS wheelchair, she could only afford a very basic model.
Jade says: “I’ve always been in a wheelchair, since I was very young. As I started to get older I wanted to be more independent and push myself around college. But the NHS didn’t fund the kind of wheelchair that I wanted”
“I studied photography at college, so I used my wheelchair a lot to go out taking photographs, and I’ve just started working at a solicitor’s, so I need to be independent getting myself to work and going out with my friends. It’s a lot easier to use a lightweight wheelchair, rather than something that’s bulky. Depending on where I am, I like to push myself, around work and around town, if it’s not too busy.”
Seeing how it was affecting Jade’s confidence, her close-knit family felt they had to do something. Jade’s uncle, Matt, and godmother, Vicky (who are cousins), started a crowdfunding campaign via JustGiving to raise £3,000 for a new chair.
Matt says: “We wanted to help Jade get the wheelchair she needed, so we thought: ‘Why don’t we try fundraising?’ I’d heard about crowdfunding, although we didn’t know anyone who’d done it before, but after some internet research we decided that JustGiving was the easiest way – it only took us 15 minutes to set up.”
Matt and Vicky created their crowdfunding page and promoted it via social media. In addition, the pair decided to give the campaign an extra boost by vowing to climb up Mount Snowdon, the highest mountain in Wales, if they hit their target.
“We had a lot of people sharing links on Facebook and got pledges that way,” says Matt. “After a week we reached our £3,000 target and even went a little bit over.”
Vicky, a learning disability nurse, continues: “The wheelchair that Jade had was too small and heavy. My aunt struggled to lug it in and out of the car.”
Vicky is another member of the extended family: Jade’s main carer is Vicky’s aunt, who is Matt’s mother and Jade’s grandmother.
“Jade is a young woman and wheels herself around,” continues Vicky. “The wheels are her legs and it’s important to her. She doesn’t want to stick out like a sore thumb.”
The new wheelchair has become an essential part of Jade’s life, freeing her up to pursue the lifestyle she wants and providing the independence she needs.
She says: “I can get around a lot easier and I feel more independent and safe. It’s also made a difference to my family because they’re the ones who have to lift it in and out of the car.
“I want to carry on working at the solicitor’s and work my way up in that profession. And when I’m doing that, I’d like to be more independent. Just being able to push myself into town is so much easier with this wheelchair. I struggled with my old one.”
Jade, Matt and Vicky say they were shocked and surprised by public generosity in response to their JustGiving campaign. “It’s a significant amount for people to give and I find it hard to believe that people could be so generous just for me,” says Jade.
For Matt, it was a humbling experience: “When there’s a lot of bad going on in the world, you realise there are some nice people. Nobody expected this response. We were all in shock – in fact, I still am!”
JustGiving Crowdfunding allows anyone to create a campaign and transform people power into donations. Find out more at crowdfunding.justgiving.com
