Happy Mobility Monday folks!

I haven’t left the house since last week, primarily because I’ve been too exhausted and in pain from managing the mould and mould mites around the house. I am making it a goal to leave the house before Wednesday… watch this space!

In the meantime I thought I’d take a look back to this time last year.

My NHS wheelchair had been broken down for weeks and was on it’s way back from it’s second trip away to be ‘fixed’. I still remember the feelings of anger and utter despair so clearly (partly because I’m feeling similar again this year for completely different reasons). I remember the repairs company dropping it off, still broken, covered in mud and tracking it all through my rented flat’s beige carpet before I could stop them.

It was also around this time that I started to consider needing to buy a wheelchair myself.

I Googled and looked around, I watched a few videos on YouTube and spoke to other wheelchair users I knew to get an idea of what I needed, rather than looking straight to local mobility high street stores, as I hadn’t had very good service from those in the past. I discovered electric foldable wheelchairs on Amazon and fell in love but I just couldn’t find out enough information about them. The wheelchairs seemed to good to be true and the positive reviews were very encouraging, perhaps a little too encouraging. Digging deeper, I realised there were a lot of unsatisfied customers in the feedback comments. Problems with overseas communication, missing or broken parts, wheelchairs feeling shoddy or even unsafe. This was what kind of model I wanted… but I wanted it safely and legitimately.

Luckily, a fellow wheelchair user from a Facebook group I’m in recommended me Lith-Tech‘s website and showed me her own wheelchair folded up in her boot. The company seemed legal, trustworthy, honest and were UK-based, meaning communication and even trying out a wheelchair for size would be much easier that going through Amazon to an overseas company who’s ratings I couldn’t even trust.

The rest, as most of you know, is wonderful history. My amazing family, friends and even strangers pulled together to help me buy my dream wheelchair. Lith-Tech have been everything I’d hoped they were when I first saw their site and this… this is why I’ve been writing the Mobility Monday blogs for this past year. I hope if there is anyone out there desperately Googling for wheelchair solutions as they’ve been let down by NHS provisions may come across my posts. I hope my experiences, explanations and suggestions may be able to help someone in need.

Tune in next week to see if I actually leave the flat. How exciting!