Welcome to our SCI journey Blog
Paul sustained a spinal cord injury in August 2019. His wife Sandra, daughter Natasha and grandson Harry, came together and promised that whatever life was going to be like in the future, they were in it together.
The family invite you into their new world to see what life is like with a SCI, the daily difficulties, the happy moments and the things they learn along the way.
They hope this will help others to live their best life and encourage business owners to be mindful of the challenges we face.
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Are Accessible Toilets Accessible?
We are often needing to use accessible toilets, some are more accessible than others. Some businesses believe they have an accessible toilet but for users, they are often not as accessible as they could be. A lot are built with a standard manual wheelchair in mind. What we have is, a motorised tilt in space…
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Table Tennis!
A morning out with the Spinal Injuries Association and an opportunity to give table tennis a try at Plymouth Life Centre! No idea what to expect with table tennis but we’ll give it a go! It was a slightly earlier start for the PA’s to help dad get up and ready. They never mind though,…
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Accessibility Onboard Celebrity Silhouette
Lifts – there are 12 lifts onboard. All spacious with easy access to call buttons. They get busy at particular times such as dinner times and theatre times. Other than that, not usually more than a 2 minute wait if that. Lifts go to all floors with the exception of the retreat deck. This is a sun…
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Holiday Time!
Immediately, we knew holidays were no longer going to be simple. So much to think of! Cruising from Southampton looked our best option – no flying, limited travel time. How do we plan? Well, it takes Military planning & precision!! Limited cruise ships sail from Southampton, and we need to have hospital style bed. This…
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Ahoy cruise mates!
It’s an early start! Holiday PA’s stayed over with us so we can all leave together. 2 of our lovely PA’s arrived at 0545 to start the morning routine: disconnecting nights bags, shower, wash, moisturise, dress, stretches and into wheelchair. Takes about an hour. Ready to set off at 0700 and the PA’s stayed behind…
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Center Parcs
Short breaks away from home are just the tonic! Home life can become quite mundane at times and, having exciting opportunites to look forward to and focus on can help. It’s September so a time for us to embark on a short break to Center Parcs. We chose Longleat this time; we’ve been several times…
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Dental Access
Accessing dental support is difficult enough, even more so being a full time wheelchair user.
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Let’s Swim
We did it! Hydrotherapy brings so many positives to our wellbeing. An amazing day with dad in the water.
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Mummy daughter day trip!
For the first time since dads been out of hospital (3 years 1 month) both mum and I are away from home for the day. Taking a rare day trip out of Plymouth together. Normally one of us is around, at least in the local area…
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Torquay with friends
A short notice trip to Torquay to spend time with friends. I booked the parents into Premier Inn. Having already had a 5 ⭐️ experience in Wembley, we thought the same experience would be ahead. As Power of Attorney for dad, I tend now to do any admin that he needs me to do,…
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An Evening Out
Evenings out are no longer spontaneous or frequent. Some considerable planning goes into everything. Where are we going, how do we get there, what’s the seating situation like, accessibility, can a helper and the wheelchair fit into the accessible bathroom, do we need carers? And then, there’s a later bedtime to consider – how to…
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London, Wembley
Wembley Stadium: Never did I think I’d be heading to Wembley to watch Bolton Wanders play Plymouth Argyle! But as a Bolton fan, dad wanted to watch the football and, disability shouldn’t hold him back. Yes it takes a little more organising and some reshuffling of the care planner but we made it happen. We…
Daily Life with a C4/C5 Spinal Cord Injury 