I, Anna Jones, former netball captain and athletic all-rounder, am now the proud(?) owner of a Kymco Mini LS portable mobility scooter. After much research and deliberation I bought it from Mobility Giant.
I can’t really put it into words how this makes me feel but like always I will try.
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Once upon a time I was sleeping in a bed in my parent’s dining room. I was wheeled to the downstairs bathroom and had to have my hair cut off because I couldn’t wash or brush it myself.
Five years later and I am still poorly enough to have to buy a mobility scooter. Yet this most recent purchase marks my incredible progress. It means I am not bedbound and that I can even leave the house on my best days. It means that my cognitive difficulties have lessened so much so that I can control a motorised scooter safely.
As luck would have it, the scooter arrived in time for a family reunion weekend away. I was worried I would burst into tears when Mr Tree Surgeon took it out of the car. No 27 year old wants to need one of these things. He took it for a little spin first to show me how to use it. Seeing him on it normalised it somehow and gave me the confidence to have a go myself.
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| Sitting on it for the first time. In my Despicable Me pyjamas. Naturally. |
As it turns out I had a job getting everyone else off it, my brothers in particular! Between me and my grandad we had two wheelchairs, a walking stick, a wheeled walker, and a mobility scooter. Plenty for everyone to play with it seems!!! For the first time in years I was able to accompany my dad on a little walk down a country lane.
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| It’s a family affair! |
I should say though that using a mobility scooter is still exhausting. It’s an incredibly comfy scooter but the bumping around and concentration took more out of me than I’d anticipated. Still, I was less exhausted scooting for one mile than I would have been walking 100 metres.
I had to stop and cry happy tears (something that’s becoming a regular occurrence!!!) when I managed to scoot along next to Mr Tree Surgeon at Rutland Water today.
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| The smile probably says it all… |
I have seen progress with my health in such a ‘short’ amount of time; progress that so many others do not get to experience. For that I am immensely grateful. I am in my sixth year and I am still ridiculously poorly. But my bad days now are what my good days used to be.
Now I must go and get Mr Tree Surgeon to stop driving it around the living room with the guinea pigs in the basket!!!!
'M.E. myself and I' by Anna Redshaw 
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