A new wheelchair for Emma

You all know Emma. You may know her as Mahvash of Persia or Asya of Varushka through LRP, PseudoDeviant on twitter or from her PseudoLiving blog. You may have only met her once or twice or you may see her weekly. Either way I think it's safe to say it was a positive experience to spend time with someone so warm, generous, passionate and supportive.



You are probably also aware that Emma uses a wheelchair to get around. She has Joint Hypermobility Syndrome as a result of a genetic condition, as well as extensive abdominal damage as the result of botched medical care. The result is that she's in extreme pain from the first step she takes which increases the further she travels. Thus to get anywhere beyond the end of our path she needs a powered wheelchair.



You might be aware that Emma has a power chair and if you are you almost certainly know that the thing is a scrap-heap on wheels. Having sat down and worked it out the current chair has spent about 15% of the time we've had it broken in some way. More importantly for some it has *never* made it through a LRP event without something breaking. It was sold to us as suitable for moderate off-road use such as fields and parks, yet it constantly throws wheels, tyres, footrests and other parts whenever asked to go near so much as a dirt path.
More troublingly, the insurance which has allowed us to afford repairs expires this week. Without it we're facing bills in excess of £200 for even minor failures. At its current rate of deterioration it'll be less than a year before we simply can't afford to run it any more. At the very least it means that Emma can't attend any LRP events (the thing most likely to break something) until we have a new chair or a way to pay for the inevitable breakages.



Excitingly we were shown an excellent wheelchair at a recent disability expo which was designed by a motorbike manufacturer to be rugged, powerful, suiltable for 'soft-roading' and, most satisfyingly, to resolve a few of the very specific issues we've had with the current chair. Even more shockingly the chair is advertised as *less* than the current chair was when new! I spent half an hour trying to find some fault with it, kicking and beating the thing to find points of weakness and checking every issue we've ever had and it stood up to everything. This chair is the Kymco K-Activ.

Unfortunately, despite it being a stunningly reasonable price it's still over two grand that we simply don't have. So here's where you lovely people come in. Someone pointed out that if everyone who attended the last Empire donated £1 we'd have enough there and then to buy the new chair. I hate begging but it's the only option we're left with at the moment.
If you want to keep seeing Emma outside of the house, and particularly at LRP events like Empire, Odyssey, Falling Down and others could you please make a small donation towards seeing to it that the woman I admire most retains her freedom.