It can’t be just me who gets thoroughly frustrated at the health and safety restrictions we always face in the UK… Far from helping me in any way, it just seems to limit choice, increase cost, and further separate us from the healthy population.
Which is part of the reason I love going abroad, it’s always a bloody relief. It’s not all countries of course, the USA is even worse, but this summer holiday to Cyprus was no exception (yes, I’m slow to post this).
Firstly, getting off the plane. Not only was the disabled assistance there ready, but the assistant staff are able to transfer me into the aisle chair, make a judgement that I am sitting well, and wheel me off. I absolutely detest the equivalent UK process where three different belts are strapped around you as if you’re being sectioned and rolled away in a high security unit. In the airside lift, which moves vertically up and down at about 1 mph, you are able to put your wheelchair brakes on and stay against the wall, unlike back here where staff have to spend 10 minutes strapping my chair to the floor (how’s that safer in an emergency?!).
So, having seen para sailing trips up and down the coast from our hotel, I was desperate to see if there was a way I could do it. And guess what, that was! It was so much fun, and a box ticked from my life experiences list. The hazardous part was getting in and out of the boat and strapped to a parachute, that relied on an amazing crew not being scared to lift me about. Once you’re in the air it is actually amazingly serene, very different to what I expected. Now if ever I see a boat with a parachute soaring behind it, I won’t wonder enviously, but instead remember the experience with a smile. Memories of doing things take on all new significance in disabled life.
Were I somewhere like the UK, I imagine I would have had to research different operators in advance, call ahead, wait for some manager or specialist to call me back, tell me it either wasn’t possible, or I would need to visit ahead of time for an assessment, all costing triple the healthy price. It’s enough to suck the fun out of anything. I’m not naïve to the fact it could have gone badly; the guy carrying me into the boat could have fallen off the jetty, the strap supporting my back could have broken. I’m hugely grateful to the crew for taking that chance, but for me that’s life; I’ve fallen over in my flat or spilt boiling tea on me enough times to know that. There are risks, let me choose to take them.
Source: thinkindecimals.wordpress.com