In October 2008 I became the proud owner of a Balder Finesse F290. If James Bond was a wheelchair user (which would by cool incidentally), he would have one of these chairs...
The F290 takes me from sitting or lying to a standing position, in which I can move around just as if I was seated. When I’m standing, supporting castors on the chair lower down to give the chair extra stabilitty. A chest strap and knee brace keeps my in the chair whilst standing, and I do feel very secure and confident (which is shocking, after many years of not being able to stand up fully - you'd have thought I would have lost my confidence completely).
Therapeutically being able to stand is really fantastic. I can feel a real stretch on my hamstrings, knees and stomach muscles. These are things my body hasn’t experienced in years. I reckon that in a few months I’ll really start to feel the difference. I am also really hopeful that this will help with muscle spasm too.
Somebody needs to practice her standing up pose...
As well as enabling me to stand, the F290 will raise and lower me while sitting or lying down. In addition I can tilt forward and backward, giving me a range of positions from which my life can be made easier. Supposing I am in Tesco and wanted something from the top shelf. Pre-F290 I’d have to wait for an approachable-looking tall person to pass and smile sweetly while asking them to pass me the “Tesco brand sugar free boiled sweets, and could you choose the bag with the least green ones in as I don’t like those please?” Now I can just rise, tilt and wallah...
I can also recline and raise/lower my legs, which is great for taking the pressure off my bum. Remaining in roughly the same position all day really isn’t good and it can lead to nasty pressure sores/ulcers – so it’s great to be able to keep moving around. I have also started (over the past three years or so) started to suffer with really poor circulation – my feet are icy cold and my toes turn an evil (but cool) shade of black in the winter. I’ll be really interested to see what difference being able to raise my legs (which will get the blood flow going) will make.
All this comes at a price of course, and it is such an astronomical cost that most mere mortals such as myself could never afford. I first saw the chair at Naidex (an exhibition for disability-related products) where it caught my eye. I remember telling the folks at work about this fantastic chair I had seen at Naidex and showing them the brochure I had picked up from the show. A few days later my supervisor came to me saying “if that’s what you want, go for it...” Some of my colleges had been coming up with ideas to help me raise some money towards it. And that’s all it took to get the ball rolling really; one thing led to another after that...
In May 2007 the police held a fun day in my honour. Books were donated for the book stall, food donated for the barbeque (though how nobody was poisoned I will never know) and cakes were baked and sold. We had a bouncy castle to entertain the kids, and all this took place on a rugby field on which the force’s men rolled around and got all muddy (whilst playing rugby). A great deal of effort was put into finding descent prizes for the raffle (such as signed football shirts and rides in sports cars, light aircraft and hot air balloons - which were all donated) and tickets for this sold like hotcakes. The day was a huge success and we had a great attendance. The memory of it will always be very special. We raised about £2,500 on the day.
Thanks to everyone at the police, especially Joyce (my supervisor, pictured),
Vicki and June - I wouldn't have done it without you
The next step was to organise an assessment with Balder and find out exactly what I would need and how much it would cost. We were quoted £14,500. It seemed like a big mountain to climb and a LOT of money to raise, but I knew I owed it to my supervisor and other colleagues at the police to at least have a good try. I quizzed the sales quy a bit concerning grants and things, and he told me about a charity called Action for Kids.
Action for Kids, despite the name, supports anyone up to the age of 26. They provide grants to those in need of mobility equipment and housing adaptations (to make a home more accessible that is – I don’t think they would be game for paying for a second garage). I wrote to them straight away, but they wrote back saying that all of their funds for that financial year had been allocated (this was June 2007, and the financial year started in April) but they would keep my details on file and write to me in early 2008.
In the mean time I went about chipping away at the £14,500 mountain. In my research I found that there are enough grant-giving charities out there that support under 18s to shake a stick at, but if you old like me (mid-twenties) then there aren’t a lot of options. However, aside from the police’s £2,500, I managed to get:
- A £1,000 welfare grant from Ataxia UK (a charity for which I’ve volunteered for many years, so this was a lovely “gift” from them).
- A £1,800 wheelchair voucher from the NHS, which is way more than I expected. However I did have to have a medical and a driving test before qualifying for this!
- My nan sadly died in 2007 and left us some money in her will, so £2,000 was put aside to use for my new chair. Thanks nan and granddad (and mum for putting the money aside)!
True to their word, in February 2008 Action for Kids sent me an application form to apply for a grant. The chair I had at the time was dying of overuse and earlier that month I’d had a bad accident whilst driving it which shook me up a bit so hearing from Action for Kids couldn’t have been better-timed.
It is usually parents who apply for Action for Kids grants and the application form was very much written for parents. Although I had my parents’ full support and they would have been quite happy to apply for me, I wanted to do it myself. So I rearranged the form so it addressed me, plugged in some time for arranging supporting documents and dealt with all communications. In April 2008 I was told that my application was successful.
I had a few more assessments, including another more detailed assessment from Balder which I had in June 2008. They prescribed some optional extras to make the chair more suited to my own individual needs. These included:
- An adjustable headrest, as my head doesn’t sit centrally because of my Scoliosis.
- A seat belt and chest strap to keep me off the floor!
- Ankle huggers (straps that keep your feet in place) to stop my feet from rolling.
- A golf ball shaped joystick, which would be (and is) a lot easier for me to grip.
- A bar at the back from which to hang shopping bags (essential) (yes, this is an optional extra!)
- Front and rear lights, so you can see me coming!
This raised that total price to £16,500. Thankfully Action for Kids were okay about covering the cost of the extras I needed. They will also cover the cost of future servicing and any maintenance the chair will need. This means there is no need to pay for an extended warranty. However you are advised to take out insurance to cover any accidental damage (such as weather damage and accidents due to drunken driving). I took out Balder’s own insurance at a cost of £200 per year.
Finally the chair was delivered in October 2008. All I can say is a HUGE thank you to everyone involved.
Here's me at eye-level in Jongluers, where I was the official leaning
post for the evening (one of the many less publicised benefits of the Balder F290)
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