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.