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 | You and Yours - Transcript BBC Radio 4 |
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| TX: 08.05.09 - Disabled Rambling PRESENTER: PETER WHITE |
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| Downloaded from www.bbc.co.uk/radio4 THE ATTACHED TRANSCRIPT WAS TYPED FROM A RECORDING AND NOT COPIED FROM AN ORIGINAL SCRIPT. BECAUSE OF THE RISK OF MISHEARING AND THE DIFFICULTY IN SOME CASES OF IDENTIFYING INDIVIDUAL SPEAKERS, THE BBC CANNOT VOUCH FOR ITS COMPLETE ACCURACY. WHITE Now it's the time of year when people are dusting down their rambling gear and heading for the hills, there are 140,000 miles of public paths across England and Wales but few footpaths outside towns are accessible to wheelchair users, mainly because of the stiles. Not only that but wheelchair provided by the NHS are only intended for town use and are usually unsuitable for muddy tracks and hills - you need an all terrain wheelchair or scooter which can cost up to £5,000. But neither of these things deter the Disabled Ramblers Association who organise 30 rambles in areas across England and Wales. As part of our series on disability and leisure Henrietta Harrison headed into the Surrey woods to meet some of the ramblers on one of their first treks of the year. ACTUALITY HELBY Good morning everybody. Welcome to this short ramble. Caroline? CAROLINE I'm here. HELBY Who's over there is going to be our leader and she's mapped out a route which will take us to a higher point outside the forest. HELBY I'm Robin Helby and I'm chairman of the Disabled Ramblers. We're a charity to get the people with reduced mobility out into the countryside. We're in Winterfold Forest which is right up on the North Surrey hills. HARRISON What sort of people come along on the rambles? HELBY A completely mixed bag of people, all backgrounds, a lot of people who've found that their health has deteriorated with age, MS, other conditions. HARRISON What are the different scooters or wheelchairs that people come in? HELBY Well some people come in manual wheelchairs but they're actually no use in the countryside, you need a three wheeled wheelchair or a hand cycle. But most of our members use electric power and some of them use, on the easy rambles, they use shopping scooters but on the more difficult rambles, the category 3 rambles, they now use heavy duty scooters like the Tramper. HARRISON So what are you in? HELBY I'm in a Tramper. HARRISON Is that the sort of Rolls Royce of outdoor scooters? HELBY It is the best, yes. HARRISON Tell me - tell me then why is it the best? HELBY Because it's the most comfortable, the most stable, the most powerful and it'll go the furthest. HARRISON Is there a sort of element of competition? HELBY Well all the Trampers are the same, so there's no competition. Though sometimes we do compete just to see who is prepared to go up the steepest hill or down the steepest slope. HARRISON There seems to be a slight obstacle course coming up, can you ...? HELBY Well now we're turning to go through a gateway and although the walkers can skirt round a tree trunk we've got to take a different route which goes up a little - over some tree roots before we can get through the gate. HARRISON Hi, coming to interrupt you. NORTH Sorry for my squeak. HARRISON Not at all. Can you just explain what sort of wheelchair that you're in? NORTH Right I'm not using a wheelchair I'm using a hand cycle. I'm Barry North, I'm chairman of the Hand Cycling Association and I'm riding a hand cycle which looks like a wheelchair and the back half essentially is a wheelchair and a third wheel clamps on the front which has a set of hand cranks, rather like bicycle pedals but they're not at opposite angles, your hands move together, and 27 gears, along with brakes. And so you can go across rough terrain, although on hills you do need a pusher, thank you Mr Pusher. HARRISON But why would you say choose to do a ramble in this rather than a mobility scooter or a Tramper? NORTH Oh because this is much more fun. HARRISON Why is it more fun? NORTH With all due respect to my friends in the Trampers they ain't doing anything except twisting their wrist, though enjoying the open air but this is actually getting me fit. ACTUALITY HELBY Hello. Do you want a lift? ROGER Hello Robin, yeah, why not. HELBY Dear Roger when he comes on rambles and we get to a hill we put a rope round from me and he puts it round his handlebars and he gets towed up. I'm in a Tramper and he's in a three wheeled wheelchair, if that's the right word to call it. ROGER Yes, yes specialised cross country manual wheelchair. HELBY Fantastic machine and he gets a tow all the way up the hill and you get to the top Roger goes screaming down at about 60 miles an hour and we all descend slowly and sedately. HARRISON So you're being towed now? ROGER I'm being towed now, yes, it's very easy. HARRISON So you'll just get pulled up a hill basically. ROGER That's right, I mean why go to the expense of buying yourself a Tramper when your friends have got one? HARRISON How much Trampers then? ROGER I dunno, ask Robin, how much are they? HELBY Five and a half thousand. HARRISON Oh my goodness. So is it - I mean this is quite bumpy, quite steep terrain, is it comfortable enough? ROGER I don't think comfort comes into it, I mean I think if you want to enjoy the countryside you've got to prepared to be uncomfortable. I mean if you want - if comfort's what you're after then stay in the town. HARRISON I'm exhausted. It's this walking and talking I can't do it. Everything alright Barry, coping alright? NORTH Yes, well I am, I don't know about my pusher. BARRY NORTH'S PUSHER Still talking, yeah I'm fine. CAROLINE Anybody want binoculars? HARRISON So what do you think of it up here? CAROLINE I think it's just superb up here. I mean this is a place where I come to regularly actually to look at the view and it's just like you're on top of the world up here aren't you really. And the good thing about this area is you can look at the North Downs that side and then come over here and see the South Downs. It's a very popular place up here. HARRISON So Roger what do you think of it up here? ROGER Oh it's glorious, it's glorious. It's just uplifting to be here and to be here where there aren't hundreds of other people. You know you can drive car parks and get views like this but so do lots of other people. HARRISON Now you've done some work on what scooters or wheelchairs are out there for people who want to ramble, I mean what do you think - do you think there's decent projects out there? ROGER Oh there are. Like all disability issues there's a great deal of ignorance and the ignorance isn't just in the able bodied community, it's in the disabled community themselves. And I mean this sort of set up is not rocket science, if you want to go over rough country you have three big - you have big wheels not small wheels and yet these products are only just now being available. I mean in the manual wheelchair they're one offs, you've virtually got to sort of get it built yourself. And the professionals that are involved - the occupational therapist, the wheelchair services - their aspirations are so small and they're concerned with the wheelchairs - now make sure you don't get a pressure sore, can you get on and off the toilet, so much of disability's about toilets - with not what sort of equipment do you need to enjoy yourself. HELBY We're on our way back. HARRISON You must be very proud of yourself, having got this group up here. HELBY Yes it's fantastic to get a group of people who have no ability to walk more than a few yards to be able to get up to a place like this, it's not just getting here it's the fact that we've managed to get here, it's the adventure of getting here. And - we've got to have some excitement in life and some challenges. We're ready to go when you are. HARRISON Who was that going past? HELBY That's Roger Fitzwalter on his three wheeler, enjoying the hill. HARRISON Going about 35 miles an hour it looks like. HELBY Yes absolutely. HARRISON I know he's left you behind, hasn't he, in the dust. HELBY These Trampers are limited to four miles an hour, so yes. So he gets his excitement screaming down the hills. HARRISON We're on the home straight Robin. HELBY We're on the last little bit on the way home now. HARRISON Sad that it's over. HELBY Ah it just makes me want to just look forward to this year's rambling. I think 30 days of doing this. WHITE Sounds to me as if Henrietta needs to join them more often. I do know for a fact she can walk and talk. If you want more information on the Disabled Ramblers there's a link on our website and that's disabledramblers.co.uk. Back to the You and Yours homepage The BBC is not responsible for external websites |
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