The Reason I Know I Can Meet The Challenge

12 March 2008

The reason I know I can meet this challenge.

As nothing much has happened to-day I decided to write about the reason I feel I can get the Alber Adventure from Lands End to John O’Groats.

To answer this question I have 5 points to make and they are in no particular order!

· That I have to have the conviction and faith, within myself, that what I am doing I can achieve
· That I have the right people with me and behind me to achieve the goal I have set myself
· That I have the right power chair, reliable, easy to battery change, fast and comfortable.
· That I have the hardware in form of vehicles, tents camping gear.
· That even though I have rheumatoid arthritis, I am fit enough to meet the challenge.

I have all of the above and more, and I will now tell you how.

Some of you may, and some of you may not, will have gathered that I hold my Christian Faith highly in my life. Without it, at times, I do not think I could have pulled through some of the situations I have faced over the past few years, and especially now, when I was faced with my back against the wall as regards my care package. It is that faith, strength of character and taking with me, all the faces of people I have seen through the wonders of television, who have achived, through all adversity, the impossible. I was a great watcher of Extreme Challenge to name a recent program. If those people could face what they did to reach their goal, I can reach mine.

The right people behind me and in front of me.

I am on Direct Payments to pay for my care. To me it is the best way to control who looks after me and when. I could talk about the merits of Direct Payments all night, so I will stop right now, on that one. The support I have been getting from my friends and personal support team, here in my home, as I plot the journey from E2E is beyond doubt. Some my carers are joining me at each stage, and I hope, also an old friend and a few new ones, along the route. Jane with her horse Hadley, on the last three days, being just one of them.

Along side all of the above is a chap called Vincent Moran from Arthritis Care, who read an email saying that a lady of 60, totally wheelchair and human dependent, want to drive a power wheelchair, from Lands End to John O’Groats as a fund raiser for Arthritis Care and would he like Arthritis Care to be my chosen charity and support me. In about 2 days after receiving the said email, he said that Arthritis Care would be glad to have me as a, hang on, I will check his email, I have just found the email 30 October 08, rather long, but said yes they would love to have my E2E challenge as a fund raiser, and they would help me in what ever way they could.

If you add to Vincent his team of Arthritis Care groups, some 300 in all, all supporting me and backing me up in what ever way they can, then I have really chosen the right people to do the challenge for.

You know something; I have forgotten the one person whom I contacted right at the begging of the mad thoughts I had to do the E2E challenge, a guy called Jack Adams from the Lands End to John O’Groats Association.
Jack endured all the emails I sent him; I will count them one day. He answer all my questions, the big one being, has one person, in one power wheelchair, done the E2E He did find out that one person had done it but did not know the details. I traced the person down we spoke at great lengths, and told me that he took three power wheelchairs per day and took, I think, 6 weeks to compleat the E2E. I also found, and spoke to, through the wonders of the internet, that another guy attempted the E2E in 2000, but he tipped his wheelchair over and could not complete the journey; then along comes me, one wheelchair in 4 weeks. So Jack, here is a big thank you and X just for you, and I hope to see you in Wakefield very soon.

At the fear of boarding you, I have to talk about the power wheelchair I am using. As the heading to this log says, it is an Alber Adventure Power Wheelchair, that I am doing the E2E in, I would also like to add that it is being supplied by Gerald-simonds. Thanks to Alton Aids, who by the way recommended the Alber Adventure to me at a NIDEX show, here in Newcastle, and let me have one for a few days, hence the photographs of me in an Alber Adventure.

I can remember the first time I drove Alber; it was like sitting in a Formulary One Racing Power Wheelchair. I was very careful at first, then after a day or two, I opened him up and it was just magic. It was love at first sight…ar! Then I discover the extras I could have, including a wing mirror, yes a wing mirror. Why can not all power wheelchairs have a wing mirror is beyond me. There will be a lot written about Alber over the next few months and you will all be able to follow me along my E2E route thanks to the Geo Tracker that will be fitted, so I shall say no more at the moment.

I will talk about my fitness and how I keep fit on another page. Now it is time for neighbours on chanell 5. For my boring reader from Scotland, it is Susan who has MS!

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