Dear LPG readers, 

I want to start with a question?  Have you ever, on your travels, seen a wheel chair user with one foot on the ground and wonder why?  

I recently wrote a message which I hoped might make the future appear a little more positive for anyone who has experienced a stroke or any other bout of illness which has left their ability to get around under their own steam limited.   After returning to her home and, for three months one of my friends was not able to leave at all, my friend who suffered a stroke last year, mentioned the difference that just being able to get out into the fresh air once in a while might make.

There is always the option of buying a wheelchair if you can afford it but even the non-electric ones are really expensive.  I have watched my friend and can see just how hard it is to come back from losing the use of one leg, arm and hand.  I have seen the constant determination needed as she repeats the same exercises without feeling that anything is being achieved.  When we visit, her friends are seeing her frustration each time her attempt to do something simple that we do without thinking, (like using your fingers to grip a small item to pick it up) ends in failure.  I cannot imagine how experiencing that frustration constantly feels and what it is like to be experiencing it over and over again first-hand; even though I can see her gradual improvement. 

She has made some progress with being able to use the furniture and walls around the rooms in her flat to get to her kitchen and bathroom although when she gets there what she can do for herself is still very limited. 

We found out about the NHS wheelchair service and the possibility of borrowing a wheelchair rather than buying one but I wondered if, once she got used to getting around with help, she would get complacent and not bother with her fight to leave her home and walk again because of the backup that being able to be pushed around in the wheelchair would give her.   

 I envisaged that someone would always have to be with her because she would only be able to operate it with one hand resulting in her only being able to move in a circle, but I went with her for her wheelchair assessment and she was taught how even with only one working hand you can get a mechanical wheelchair from A to B successfully.  As you can imagine, if she only propelled herself using one wheel she would go round in circles but she was shown how to use her working leg to keep the chair going strait

She now has her wheelchair and the surprising thing is that while being pushed is an option, even with only working limbs on one side of her body, she can travel independently.  

But now back to the answer to the question I posed at the beginning of my message…

Whenever I have seen a person in a wheelchair with one foot on the ground, I have always assumed that they are being a bit lazy while making their way down the road but using your good leg in conjunction with your good arm is the secret of steering a manual wheelchair and keeping it on the straight and narrow.   

Armed with this knowledge I regret the many dismissive thoughts I have had when seeing one legged wheelchair users and I suspect that this little bit of knowledge might alter the perception of other able-bodied people who have come to the same misguided assumptions as me in the past.  

VF, Deptford.

There are not many examples of this on the internet but we at LPG have found one…

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