According to statistics, over ninety percent of Britain is countryside.  So why is so much of this still so inaccessible to people with disabilities?

Last month, I was very privileged to be part of a group of people walking one hundred miles along the Cotswold Way on behalf of the charity, Rally Round Rupert.

The charity works to raise awareness and funds for Spinal Muscular Atrophy. This is a degenerative neuromuscular condition affecting around one in six thousand people.  The aims of this were twofold – one, to raise awareness and money for SMA research.  The second to highlight the difficulties faced by wheelchair users and people with mobility difficulties in accessing our green and pleasant land.

To this end, an incredible team were tasked with navigating the entire one hundred and two miles with a special all terrain wheelchair.  Designed by Tim Morgan of the Mountain Trike Company, this superb bit of kit was initially devised as a final year project whilst Tim was at university.  It later became a reality and now the business build each one to specification in their newly expanded factory.  

It tackles many of the problems faced by wheelchair users in accessing the great outdoors.  Large wheels at the back ensure getting over uneven terrain is more straightforward.  Off road tyres help this process even further.  An innovative lever system helps to propel the chair forward, further assisted by an optional battery powered assist.  There are many more factors that contribute to the efficacy of this chair. So it poses the question, why did it still need a team of around ten people to enable one wheelchair user to get along the trail?

The answer is simple – stiles and gates.  

The Cotswold Way runs from Chipping Campden in Gloucestershire to the beautiful town of Bath.  It largely follows the Costwold Escarpment, meaning there are many vantage points offering incredible views across the countryside.  It runs along the top of hills, through woods and along some smaller roads.  But is it littered all the way along with a multitude of stiles and kissing gates. Every single one of these is inaccessible to a wheelchair user.

As a walker, sometimes these stiles felt an obstacle.  At the end of day one, having already walked over thirty miles, the sight of the final stile before our resting place for the night was almost enough to bring me to tears.  My exhausted legs could barely summon the upward power to lift me over. I practically had to crawl over in a decidedly undignified fashion!

But that was nothing compared to the superhuman efforts of the wheelchair team later nicknamed the T3. Standing for Trojans, Tramadol and Tunes – the first describing them, the second the two things needed to get them through!  This incredible group of people pushed, pulled, lifted and propelled the whole way along the route. They never gave up even when some of us lesser mortals had fallen by the wayside.

It was a phenomenal effort – fortunately the wheelchair user, my son Stan, who has SMA, still has some mobility. At every single gate or stile he had to get out and walk, while the rest of the team lifted the chair over the top.  As wheelchairs go, the chair is relatively light, weighing around twenty kilograms. Add the weight of the battery pack which is not inconsiderable, and they were fortunate that Stan was able to get out.  Add the weight of the user into the mix and suddenly it is an entirely different proposition.

Coupled with that was the size of some of the gates – one was over six feet tall, towering over me.  The team managed to lift the entire chair over the top by balancing at different points on the gate themselves and passing it up between them.

The team have renamed one section Stan’s steps. They reached one hill which was almost vertical. Unable to push the chair to the top with him in it, Stan decided to get out and walk. Despite huge fatigue, he managed to climb the entire hill with the support of the team. This was a phenomenal effort which required huge determination. This determination led to the butch burly men with him being in floods of tears when they returned. A proud mum moment for me indeed. But also one which highlights the impossibility of this for someone with even more significant mobility problems.

When the team crossed the finishing line at Bath Abbey it was an amazing moment. Every single passer by stopped to clap and cheer them on.  This time it was my turn to be in tears, watching this phenomenal group of humans who had indeed made the impossible possible.  For that is the crux – Stan was a crucial part of the team and undoubtedly played his part.  But despite his determination, without a whole team of people determined to make this a reality, there is no way he would have got more than a couple of miles along the route.  Uneven paths, multiple gates, numerous stiles would have put paid to the endeavour before it even got started.

So, I return to my original statement – ninety percent of Britain is countryside – and ask, what more can we do to make this more accessible to everyone?

To find out more about SMA please visit https://smauk.org.uk

Read more about the fantastic work being done by Rally Round Rupert at https://www.rallyroundrupert.org.uk or https://www.instagram.com/rallyroundrupert/

To watch the video of the event please visit https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2yMoUvsX7HE