Hey!

My name is Chantelle, my friends call me Char. I'm fast approaching 30 years old and there's some things I'd like to do in life, but I need your help.

I'm an active wheelchair user with Cerebral Palsy. I've never been one for labels or to let my condition define me, but things are different now. Last year, I dealt with an Iliofemoral DVT from hip to foot which was, in the words of a haematologist, exacerbated by my ill-fitting NHS wheelchair. The recovery from this has been exhausting. I came out of hospital and went to battle with the local wheelchair service, AJM Healthcare. They saw fit to trade in my broken contraption for an extremely heavy "Granny Pusher" transit wheelchair which you'd put your nan in to push her from A-B.

As an experienced manual wheelchair user of 25 years at that point who could previously travel all over the country, just take myself off to London for the day, this was a big change and the chair was unusable. As such, my mobility deteriorated and I was completely reliant on others to look after me. Sitting on one of those chairs for 16 hours a day unable to do anything for myself took its toll on me. I became the heaviest I'd ever been at 100kg, possibly heavier. I became breathless doing the simplest tasks, couldn't take myself to the toilet anymore. It was a very testing time.

Fast forward to August 2024, a year of battling wheelchair service hounding them weekly over the progress of my chair, I finally received it. The difference this wheelchair made was like swimming through treacle vs water.

I eventually hopped back on my Invictus Active Trainer and I was so unfit I could barely reverse onto the thing let alone push on it. The trainer is a beautiful piece of kit that allows wheelchair users to propel freely while stationary, without having to worry about camber or potholes.

A few sessions of that a week and 2 months later I had a crazy idea to do the Hertfordshire 10k; don't even ask because at peak fitness I was easily smashing out 6 miles a day with more in the tank, my brain didn't register that I'd been inactive for over a year. My sister and I somehow smashed that 10k in under 2 hours. It was a very undulating course with disgusting hills, so crossing the finish line was emotional

Then onto sports. This family is very sporty so I decided I wanted to check out wheelchair sports. A charity called WheelPower were doing a sports festival in Stanmore which seemed like a beautiful introduction to sports. It was so much fun. I had a session of basketball and badminton, sacking off boccia for another session of the more active basketball then I went to see the guys at training and that was even better; popped tyres, balls to the head and blisters? Standard mate

How does this link to a GoFundMe, you ask?

Well, you see, when you're disabled, equipment to enhance your life so you're not stuck in the house and festering all day is very expensive. It's cheaper to buy a car than it is a custom wheelchair that suits your needs. The NHS are lovely but when it comes to mobility aids, they're . If my sporting and active lifestyle is going to progress, eventually, I'm gonna need my own equipment.

Currently, I'm looking to get a couple of add ons for my wheelchair to make it easier to propel. One of these fancy gadgets is a track wheel. The track wheel lifts your front castors off the ground so you can propel easier on more terrains. Have you ever had to push a wheelchair across grass for instance? It's not easy, active wheelchair users just make it look easy

Another attachment I'm eyeing up is a powered attachment like a batec. So when I start getting fatigued or over long distances, I just clip the thing to the front and my wheelchair turns into a scooter, conserving energy. This is of more importance now as I've recently been diagnosed with Sickle Cell Syndrome and fatigue is not good for sickle cell. Neither is strenuous exercise I guess, but I've survived this long and I'm careful about hydrating/rest days/not overdoing it.

Currently I am doing a virtual Mizen to Malin challenge on my trainer to build up my muscles and endurance. My goal for next year is to do a half marathon at some point, to raise funds for this vital equipment and to inspire other wheelies to get into sport/fitness

If you've made it this far, thankyou for reading and I'm grateful for any donations

Catch you soon,

Char

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