All Terrain Wheelchairs - My Life: April 2015

Thursday, 30 April 2015

16 days to go!

The preparation is in full swing. The route has been established, hotels booked, just giving page set up, the trailer to pull behind the wheelchair with our eight month son prepared and tested!

The next step is to prepare the wheelchair. Take it for a service, oil the parts, rotate the batteries. We have two spare wheels which hopefully will be enough. Last year's challenge, 215 miles across the country, saw only one puncture. I am sure we can beat it this time and have none!

Off course the challenge is designed to raise the money. This year we try social media to increase the donations. We have set up a Twitter account (@whellchairchall) which aims to be posting live updates from the challenge. With pictures and comments on the go, there will be instant messages so anybody can follow what we are up to. Trans-pennine Trail is following us on Twitter and promised to send some updates about obstacles.

It is all about access and obstacles! On Sunday the BBC Countryfile featured a piece about Roy improving the disabled access to RSPB reserves to make them examplars of accessibility. It was an excellent guest appearance! John Craven called Roy a remarkable and inspirational man. The words will keep us going when the challenge gets tough.

Roy's appearance on countryfile send the Twitter account (@wheelchairchall) mad. Within a day we increased our followers from 22 to 150. The inbox got blocked with Twitter messages. The aim is to get 200 followers until Friday. That's tomorrow!!!

Monday, 20 April 2015

Wheelchair Trans Pennine Trail route - come and join us. 15th May -18th May

Wheel Chair Challenge - part 2

Anna & Roy Taylor and Chris Christou would like to invite you to join us in our challenge part or all of the way. All comers welcome. Please share this on Social Media help us raise awareness in making the countryside accessible and Funds to create an accessible hide with the RSPB

Visit Our Virgin Money fundraising page

Wheelchair Challenge 2 Roy & Anna Taylor, Chris Christou

Our Route - all comers welcome

Wheelchair Challenge Part 2: The Trans-Pennine Trail: North - South Link

Chesterfield to Leeds

66 miles in 4 days

Friday 15^th May – Monday 18^th May

Day 1: Friday 15^th May

Chesterfield to Sheffield – approx 19 miles

Start: Outside Chesterfield railway station

· Via Chesterfield Canal to Stavely

· Stavely to Beighton

· Beighton to Sheffield city centre

Finish: Close to Sheffield railway station

Day 2: Saturday 16^th May

Sheffield to Wombwell, near Barnsley – approx 16 miles

Start: Park Square roundabout near Sheffield railway station

· Follow the River Don to Meadowhall

· Meadowhall to Ecclesfield

· Ecclesfield to Hoyland (via Wentworth)

· Hoyland to Wombwell – taking in RSPB Old Moor

Finish: Roundabout on B6096 – 1 mile from Wombwell railway station

Day 3: Sunday 17^th May

Wombwell, near Barnsley, to just east of Wakefield – approx 16.25 miles

Start: Roundabout on B6096, near Wombwell (1 mile from the station)

· Wombwell to Stairfoot

· Stairfoot to Cold Hiendly

· Cold Hiendly to Stanley Ferry

Finish: Stanley Ferry marina, east of Wakefield

Day 4: Monday 18^th May

Stanley Ferry, east of Wakefield, to Leeds Railway Station – approx 14.25 miles

Start: Stanley Ferry marina

· Stanley Ferry to Mickletown

· Mickletown to Woodlesford

· Woodlesford to Leeds railway station

Finish: Leeds railway station

We would love you to join us.

Sunday, 12 April 2015

Wheelchair Challenge 2 - Trans Pennine trail (North South link)

Fundraisers:

Roy Taylor, Chris Christou

http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/team/wheelchairchallenge2

Campaigning for Better Wheelchair Access to British Countryside

Fund raising target of £50,000 for a fully accessible wildlife hide at RSPB Old Moor Nature Reserve, Barnsley

Please support wheelchair users Roy and Chris on their 4 day wheelchair challenge to raise £50,000 to enable the RSPB to build a state of the art, fully accessible wildlife hide at the RSPB Old Moor Nature Reserve in Barnsley. Works will also include creating new wildlife habitats in front of the hide to create unrivalled wildlife viewing opportunities for all visitors.

Following a successful Coast to Coast Wheelchair Challenge in 2014, where £25,000 was raised for a range of improvements on RSPB reserves to make them exemplars of accessibility(from disabled seabird viewing platforms at RSPB Bempton Cliffs, to opening up miles of new accessible trails at RSPB Fairburn Ings), the Wheelchair Challenge Part 2, is a continuation of raising awareness and money to improve accessibility to British countryside.

As wheelchair users, fundraisers Roy Taylor and Chris Christou have first-hand knowledge of the difficulties of accessing areas of the countryside. Roy Taylor (a Reserves Manager for the RSPB in northern England, diagnosed with the terminal and debilitating illness, Motor Neurone Disease in 2013) and Chris Christou (who runs Mybility All Terrain Wheelchairs, and a landscape gardening business with his wife and became wheelchair bound as a result of Multiple Sclerosis six years ago) will embark on a 66 miles journey to tackle the obstacles and raise money for a special project at RSPB Old Moor Nature Reserve.

This will be a family affair so friends and family are welcome to come and cheer them on. In addition Chris will also be designing a special wheelchair buggy attachment so that Roy can bring his eight months old son, Roy, along on the challenge.

Wheelchair Challenge Part 2 – The South Pennines

66 miles,
4 days,
15-18 May,
north – south Pennine link of the Trans-Pennine Trail,
Chesterfield to Leeds.

Thank you for your kind donation.