3 years ago I was paralysed and my life changed completely, but not in a way where I felt I lost everything, but in a way where it opened me up to a world full of people that battle through life with a smile no matter how hard the challenges, and this is why we are fundraising.
2 years ago I was lucky enough to meet a young lad called Tommy who had been using a wheelchair for the majority of his life. He reached out to me on Instagram and wanted to meet up for a training session as he was keen to get himself in shape, and knowing I was local, newly paralysed and the owner of a gym I seemed the perfect training partner.
Over the last 2 years I have watched this lad not only change his body shape but his whole mentality towards life, and honestly he inspires me every day. He pushes himself literally everywhere and turns up to train in the rain, snow, wind and occasional sunshine, but in a wheelchair that looks like it’s been half way around the world
Not many of you will know but the government policy is to issue individuals that require a wheelchair a new one once every 3 years, they either have the option of a basic self propelled wheelchair or a cheque for around £1000 (this figure changes by postcode and I have known it to be as low as £600) to put towards a custom made wheelchair that is tailor made to them.
Your average custom fitted wheelchair will cost around £4-5000 and this is something I understand not everyone can afford, so we have set out to do a challenge on Friday 23rd October to see what we can raise!
We are going to try keep a sled moving for the whole time we are open on Friday by pulling it up a sprint track in our wheelchairs. The gym is open 6am-10pm so it’s going to be a challenge as we don’t even know if we can do one lap yet as we haven’t even tried, but life’s a challenge hey!
We are allowing anyone to join in and try a go in the wheelchair as it’s a physical challenge for everyone!
I have set the limit to £4000 as we have donated £1000 towards this already, but if the fundraising pushes past this I would love to have enough to fund a basketball wheelchair as this is another sport he loves.
I know it’s a long shot as it’s a large sum of money, but as the saying goes if you don’t ask you don’t get
Thank you for your support and please keep up to date with the challenge on Friday through my Instagram @tano_hg
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