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  • - Hello, lovely people!

  • Welcome to what will hopefully,

  • be the first episode in a series about

  • Powered Mobility Aids,

  • a subject that makes me feel queasy in my stomach.

  • Not at the thought of needing a mobility aid,

  • or even the slight feeling of embarrassment when

  • I use one.

  • Although to be fair that's probably because

  • I slam into anything and everything, and everyone.

  • I failed my driving test eight times.

  • Subscribe if you're also a terrible driver!

  • No, it makes me feel queasy because I'm

  • terrified of making the wrong decision.

  • Buying the wrong thing, and then I'm lumbered with it,

  • and it's not helping me,

  • and it is, in fact, actively unhelpful because it's

  • such a huge amount of money.

  • And it's really a very very big deal, and

  • I don't know how to feel about it.

  • Oh my god.

  • Wow.

  • So, my complex fears about money and

  • difficulty spending money on myself have

  • crushed together with a

  • horrible, weird, disability feelings and

  • (loud clap)

  • (displeased hum)

  • I just want to do the right thing, but-

  • All right, "What are mobility aids?" I hear you ask.

  • Well, a mobility aid is a device that is

  • designed to help people who have problems moving around

  • in order to gain greater independence.

  • Obvious examples would be a walking stick, or

  • a wheelchair.

  • We've all seen the symbol for disability, after all.

  • But it's worth bearing in mind that

  • you don't need to be completely paralyzed or

  • have non-functioning legs in order to use a wheelchair.

  • Many people who are able to stand or walk will

  • also use a wheelchair or a similar device.

  • This can be for a number of reasons, including

  • because their legs hurt when they stand or

  • walk any greater distance than just around their house.

  • Or, because they have fatigue problems, or

  • blood pressure issues.

  • All of these, all of the above.

  • Mobility aids can be used as a preventative as well as

  • a cure.

  • If it takes you this much energy to

  • walk down the street on your wobbly legs, or

  • this much energy to walk down the street with a cane,

  • then it's a- It's pretty obvious-

  • It's a pretty obvious choice, wouldn't you say?

  • (soft cymbal clash)

  • (displeased hum)

  • Says the girl who's put off buying a new mobility aid

  • for the last 10 years.

  • You know-

  • (awkward forced laughter)

  • (soft cymbal crash)

  • Yeah, okay, I've got absolutely no excuse here.

  • I'm doing it now, okay? It's happening!

  • I had to make a series on my YouTube channel to

  • make myself do it, but,

  • it's happening!

  • The mobility aids I currently use are

  • a manual wheelchair and a pair of crutches.

  • Which are great for when my hips are really painful,

  • or I've turned my ankle over, but need to kind of

  • get over any terrain.

  • The wheelchair's great for when I'm on a very flat surface,

  • but it's really damn heavy and bulky, and

  • it's difficult to use up hills because my arms are

  • very weak, and downhills because the breaks are my hands.

  • It also doesn't fit in the car at the same time as

  • my nephew's buggy.

  • It's light enough for even me to lift it into

  • the car when taken apart, which means I can

  • take it on trips.

  • Providing they're trips to flat places.

  • Also, my chair is electric blue and

  • I'm a terrible person who only likes using things when

  • they are coordinated, even if it's actually something that

  • I really physically need.

  • (comedic drum hit)

  • Colors are important, people!

  • Moving on.

  • It's mainly the hands thing.

  • As I mentioned in the video I made a few weeks ago,

  • they're not great.

  • And I want to be able to leave the house and

  • by myself I'll go to the shops, which I can't

  • do on foot for both energy and pain reasons,

  • and I can't do my manual wheelchair because

  • I live in Brighton, which apparently is just one big hill.

  • I mean, no one informed me of this when I

  • first moved here even though I used my

  • wheelchair much more then.

  • If this is me struggling on a carpet,

  • imagine me trying to go up a hill.

  • So, I'm only looking at powered ones, and

  • the two options being a mobility scooter,

  • which is generally like a cross between a motorbike and

  • a toddler's souped up tricycle.

  • And despite being huge, for some reason it's

  • totally legal to drive on both the road and

  • the pavement without a license.

  • Yay!

  • They have three or four wheels and are pretty bulky.

  • Really.

  • You may have been hit with one in a shop,

  • by an old person who genuinely does not care for

  • the highway code.

  • Which doesn't actually apply inside of a shop,

  • but maybe it should.

  • Regardless, I want to be able to run into

  • people inside a building that I shouldn't be

  • allowed to take my motorized vehicle into.

  • Scooters are generally made for outdoor use.

  • They are really powerful enough to handle

  • bumpy pavements and grass,

  • maybe even cobbled streets,

  • and can often go relatively fast, if you consider

  • five miles an hour to be fast.

  • Some can be taken apart to fit into the boot of your car,

  • and some even fold up at the touch of a button.

  • The really expensive ones.

  • Debatable as to whether the cool folding ones are

  • actually great at pavements, though, I mean,

  • that's to be decided.

  • I shall try and test them out!

  • Some also have really cute little baskets on the front,

  • which would be great for my handbag or

  • for Tilly, if she doesn't want to walk.

  • She's on my lap right now and to be fair, she

  • generally just sits there,

  • if she doesn't want to do anything.

  • The other option I'm looking at it a power chair.

  • It's a wheelchair with its own electric motor.

  • It therefore, doesn't rely on your arm strength or

  • someone else's thigh muscles to move.

  • These are much smaller, obviously, since they're

  • similar to manual wheelchairs and can turn on

  • their own circle rather than the big loop that

  • scooters have to make.

  • Being small means they fit in corridors and

  • on buses, but where do I put my handbag?

  • And, are they actually light enough to be lifted into

  • a car?

  • Because that looks pretty bulky to me.

  • Although, there are these folding ones, but

  • they look kind of scary and medical.

  • I hate things that look medical.

  • Which is so silly because clearly they look medical,

  • they're designed to fulfill a medical purpose.

  • But still, I have some medical trauma and

  • it makes me feel sick inside.

  • Often we don't address how physical health and

  • the difficult experiences it puts us through,

  • negatively impact our mental health.

  • Buying a mobility aid is like buying a car.

  • It's really expensive, it's important to get the right fit,

  • and there are a stupid number of add-ons to consider.

  • And, if you made the wrong decision, you're going to

  • be really annoyed with yourself.

  • Also, if you get something really flashy,

  • people will assume you're over-compensating for

  • something.

  • Just saying.

  • So I thought it was important to make the

  • powered mobility aid version of the millions of

  • "Which car?" Videos on YouTube.

  • This video is the first of a four-part series that

  • I will be releasing over the next few weeks.

  • And I'm going to be looking at motorized scooters,

  • and powered wheelchairs, then deciding between them.

  • I really want these videos to be a treasure trove of

  • info and advice that people can return to whenever

  • they're in need.

  • So please do join in with your own thoughts and

  • experiences in the comments below, and I will be

  • reading them and they will probably help me to

  • actually decide on what I actually end up with.

  • So thank you in advance.

  • I'm by no means an expert, I'm just a girl looking for

  • her perfect mobility aid and this is hopefully my

  • journey towards finding it.

  • Because this is going to be a damp squib of

  • a series if I don't.

  • I realized that I was being a dumb-dumb about

  • not getting myself a motorized aid when I

  • found myself, for the fifth day in a row,

  • lying on my bed and crying from my soul about

  • the pain in my legs.

  • My body pain is pretty easy to manage day by day

  • since I don't actually leave the house much.

  • I move around my house but I don't generally

  • walk more than 20 meters at a time.

  • And I take daily painkiller prescriptions.

  • My difficulty comes when I leave the house.

  • I want something that, like I said,

  • I can take to the local shops and also that will

  • get on the train to London.

  • It needs to be lightweight enough for Claudia to

  • lift into the car, but not so light that I feel like

  • I'm going to tip over if I go over a pencil.

  • Why there is a pencil on the pavement?

  • I have no idea.

  • Obviously, since I want ansolutelyeverything tied up in

  • one little bow, this is going to be the

  • easiest search ever, right?

  • I will definitely find what I'm looking for

  • right away, won't I?

  • (bouncy twang)

  • Well, okay.

  • The best thing to do is just to try as many

  • options as possible.

  • So, Claud and I headed to our nearest

  • large mobility aid showroom and decided that

  • we were going to try things out.

  • Hello!

  • We are in the car in a car park, if you hadn't gathered.

  • - Wow! So exciting!

  • - Yeah, today's entire video is just going to be

  • us in a car park just chilling, making games, having fun.

  • - It's also 28 degrees so that's going to be really fun.

  • Slowly, it'll get more and more sweaty.

  • - No, no we're here to leave the car.

  • We're here to leave the car, not just melt.

  • - It's the destination that's more important.

  • - Yes, it's today we're doing something potentially scary,

  • potentially life-affirming.

  • That made it sound like-

  • - [Claudia] You built it up so much!

  • - [Jessica] we were here to get a baby!

  • - That's not this video yet, I'm sorry.

  • You have to wait for that one.

  • No, I'm going to be trying out mobility scooters,

  • because we've finally decided it's ridiculous.

  • I need one, I can't keep pretending I don't.

  • - Yeah, it'll be so nice and you can go for

  • dog walks without like, having to think,

  • "Do I have enough energy to go for this dog walk?"

  • Obviously now that we live by a park that's got pavement.

  • - I can leave my house.

  • Do we live by a park, Claudia?

  • Do we?

  • Do we?

  • Do we live by a park?

  • - Oh no, sorry, cut that bit out.

  • - I'll be able to go to the shop by myself!

  • I mean, maybe, probably not too long a distance by myself.

  • Probably shouldn't be left alone for too much time,

  • but still!

  • And I can ride on my own thing on the airport,

  • and not have to wait for bloody special assistance!

  • - Oh yeah, that would be good.

  • - To leave me in a corner!

  • For two hours, every time.

  • - See it's either you have the choice of,

  • "Do you want to go to the departure lounge?"

  • "Or do you want to go to the-"

  • - "Shops, but then we won't take you to

  • the departure lounge."

  • - And it's like, "Oh but I want to do both."

  • - Like, okay?

  • - Oh no, so departure lounge or the gate?

  • - There's your choices, bye!

  • - And it's literally like we just want to grab

  • some water and they literally just wheel you off.

  • - Please, the water!

  • The water!

  • So, we going to have to make some tough decisions,

  • like do we get a fold up one that's quite light?

  • But then does that mean that it's going to be

  • too rickety and it won't go up curbs properly?

  • And it will be very expensive.

  • - You don't need to go up a curb!

  • I mean, drop curbs!

  • - I mean, it's nice that you assume everywhere has

  • accessibility, Claudia!

  • - Also, it's a mobility scooter so if the drop curb is

  • on the other side of the road.

  • - Oh yeah, I won't mind walk-

  • - Yeah, you won't mind!

  • - Walking?

  • - In your normal wheelchair you're like,

  • "Oh, for god sake," because it means you have to-

  • - Too far, too far!

  • - I like this thinking.

  • - From a practical sense you need to look at like,

  • the amount of power it can generate.

  • Can it go up a hill? What's the battery capacity?

  • - What's its distance?

  • How long does it take to charge up?

  • All of these things.

  • - Can we go now? Because it's getting slowly

  • hotter and hotter in here.

  • - Oh my god, we're just going to die.

  • Bye! See you in there.

  • (bouncy harmonica and bass music)

  • You don't need a driving license for these.

  • It's like driving a go-cart, right?

  • (bouncy harmonica and bass music)

  • Okay, wow, that's-

  • I'm going to turn the speed up a little bit.

  • Oh wait, can you not turn it up?

  • Okay, there we go.

  • (bouncy harmonica and bass music)

  • (bouncy harmonica and bass music)

  • Can you not change the speed whilst driving?

  • And,

  • halt.

  • For the price, these buttons are very clunky.

  • (bouncy harmonica and bass music)

  • The buttons just feel very,

  • kind of cheap, I think, for the price.

  • And they weren't very responsive.

  • And then right hand goes forward, left hand goes in reverse.

  • (bouncy harmonica and bass music)

  • (bouncy harmonica and bass music)

  • (loud steady beeping)

  • (loud steady beeping)

  • Wow, reversing is very slow.

  • - [Sales Assistant] You can turn it up.

  • - [Claudia] It's quite fast, that one.

  • (bouncy harmonica and bass music)

  • (bouncy harmonica and bass music)

  • (bouncy harmonica and bass music)

  • - I feel like this one is more,

  • solid.

  • (bouncy harmonica and bass music)

  • That's pretty good

  • - [Sales Assistant] Pretty good?

  • - Do you have anything I could ride over?

  • - [Sales Assistant] Only outside.

  • (bouncy harmonica and bass music)

  • Because if you were just in the park,

  • and you went a bit too far and you just wanted to

  • reverse, you don't want everyone looking at you.

  • (bouncy harmonica and bass music)

  • (bouncy harmonica and bass music)

  • (bouncy harmonica and bass music)

  • (bouncy harmonica and bass music)

  • (bouncy harmonica and bass music)

  • - So, which one was your, like-

  • - Which is my favorite?

  • I think the decision is more about whether we go for

  • power chair or mobility scooter,

  • rather than what I go for within those categories.

  • Because that feels like a really big difference to me.

  • - What is your favorite scooter, then?

  • - My favorite scooter, I think, was the red one that

  • you could get in silver because I felt like it had

  • a really good amount of space for me to put my feet.

  • I could put a bag next to my feet, and I liked that.

  • I didn't feel crushed at all.

  • The seat felt quite comfortable.

  • I think the other one's seat was more comfortable,

  • but the seat was fine.

  • I wasn't bothered by that.

  • - I was like, "Oh I like the other one because

  • supported a bit, for you actually."

  • - It does look a bit like a Transformer, that one,

  • the one you like.

  • You're like, "Oh, it's so sporty!"

  • - I noticed that it was in black and

  • that's kind of the color I would go for.

  • - Yeah, it was a bit much.

  • The other one had slightly more elegance to it,

  • - Okay.

  • - slightly smaller frame, I thought that was nice.

  • - I mean I can easily take it apart and lift the bits in.

  • It's just that that in itself is a little bit of-

  • - Thing to do, taking things apart.

  • Of course, with the power chair there's the one that

  • just folds down like a buggy.

  • That seems great, takes up not that much space,

  • batteries are smaller.

  • It does feel a bit hospital,

  • to me.

  • The chair was a bit more,

  • like a-

  • - Like a standard wheelchair?

  • - Yeah, the chair was a bit more like a standard wheelchair.

  • It wasn't a nice padded, "Here I am on my comfortable seat."

  • - The scooter comes with,

  • a key-

  • - Yes.

  • - So if you're like-

  • You're all right walking around shops,

  • you can get into the shop, put it into the

  • entrance of the shop, and if it's quite busy in

  • the shop, you can just take your key out, and

  • walk around the shop, and then go into the

  • changing rooms and stuff, and go into the toilet,

  • and just not worry about it too much.

  • But with the chair, you're not really meant to

  • leave them unattended.

  • - You can't leave it.

  • - And then, it's not as if I live in an incredibly

  • accessible city, where definitely every shop is accessible.

  • - Well, yeah, some shops we know have steps up to them.

  • Like that one we went to yesterday, Hills, in

  • Brighton and saw three steps.

  • Like you said, you wouldn't be able to get in with

  • your chair and you don't want to leave your chair just

  • on the pavement.

  • But with a mobility scooter, I don't think you'd

  • mind so much leaving it out.

  • - Yeah, because you take the key out.

  • - And you can sort of just park it on the pavement.

  • - So unless someone's stood there for a while hot-wiring it.

  • - And also it's quite normal to see scooters on

  • the pavement.

  • - Yeah, and no one ever looks like they're stealing them.

  • - No, they don't look like it.

  • - But also, the chair was like, 2000 pounds.

  • - Yeah, chairs are way more expensive.

  • - And that's not including VAT.

  • And then the scooter that you liked was 699 pounds.

  • - It also felt if I was going down a hill,

  • I'd definitely feel more secure in

  • the mobility scooter because I've got my little-

  • - I just realized the air con was on, sorry,

  • so there might just all sound really like

  • (loud whooshing)

  • - Oh no!

  • Oh, Claudia

  • But yeah, if I'm going down a hill in my

  • mobility scooter, then because my arms are already out,

  • so I feel,

  • I'd feel quite secure.

  • - Well exactly, that's why I said what did you want it for.

  • If you wanted it to be used indoors all the time,

  • and you already used your wheelchair a lot,

  • then I think the chair is quite good.

  • But you kind of want to use it outdoors,

  • - Inability to hold up camera

  • - You know?

  • - It is talking about what do I want it for, what do

  • I need it for.

  • - The scooter's more for outdoors but you can

  • take it into supermarkets and things if you want to.

  • I know she said that, but also at the same time,

  • you quite like pushing the trolley and choosing things,

  • so you can't really do that with a scooter.

  • - No.

  • True.

  • - Firstly, I think the idea is it gets you places,

  • and then you can have a bit of your energy reserved to

  • do what you were going to do in that place.

  • But at least you haven't used up the energy to

  • get to that place.

  • - Yes.

  • Or if we go somewhere that is easily

  • move around-able,

  • like the park, you drive to the park, take it out,

  • we go around, sounds like a good idea.

  • - Also if we went to a national trust park, for instance,

  • we don't know what it's going to be like.

  • Then we can bring it up ahead and be like,

  • "Is it okay to use a mobility scooter?"

  • And they'd be like, "Oh yeah you can stick to

  • the paths," so then (mumbles) then we get to

  • where the café is, and you have to go down some steps,

  • at least you can just park your scooter there and

  • then go down the steps.

  • I think we both feel anxious about leaving the chair.

  • - I agree, because that would be an expensive thing.

  • - An unattended power chair just seems a bit weird.

  • It's like, "Where the person's gone? What's

  • happened to them?"

  • - But, as we were saying,

  • a power chair does seem

  • more "disabled."

  • I would kind of worry sometimes that I would be

  • going around in the mobility scooter, and someone would

  • assume I'd stolen my grandmother's mobility scooter.

  • But in a power chair, they'd just assume it was mine.

  • Do you know what I mean?

  • - I think with a power chair, people will think you're

  • more chair-bound.

  • Whereas with scooter it's more to do with saving energy.

  • That's probably really bad but that's generally what

  • the perception is, isn't it?

  • You don't see an old lady and think, "Oh dear,

  • you're scooter-bound."

  • You just think-

  • - You're scooter-bound

  • - "Oh you just can't walk very fast."

  • - People would be less shocked if I got up from a

  • mobility scooter.

  • - Although I don't think that should be a

  • deciding factor on what other people think.

  • - No, other people's opinions should not be

  • a thought.

  • - I'm really hot because we had to turn the

  • fricking air con down.

  • - [Jessica] All right, we'll stop filming so you can

  • have your air con back on.

  • Can't lie, riding around was a lot of fun and

  • felt very freeing.

  • It's hard to tell what something's actually like in

  • real life when you've only seen it inside a

  • showroom, however.

  • So, the next move.

  • Renting a mobility scooter for a week and then

  • renting a power chair for a week, which you will

  • see the first of in the very next mobility aid video,

  • which should be out next week on Friday.

  • Please do add your thoughts and any

  • recommendations you may have into the comments section.

  • Hey, if you happen to know about the perfect thing that

  • fulfills all of my needs and is everything at once,

  • then please do tell me.

  • And if that answer is a unicorn, I entirely understand

  • where you're coming from.

  • Thanks for watching, and I'll see you in my next video.

  • (cheerful harmonica music)

  • (cheerful harmonica music)

  • (cheerful harmonica music)

  • (cheerful harmonica music)

  • (cheerful harmonica music)

- Hello, lovely people!

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