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An armchair ride? I don’t think so!

11 November 2005

A report by Jake Cassidy

The week I spent 'buddying' with Back-Up was one of the most demanding and yet rewarding experiences of my life. The enthusiasm of everyone involved was so infectious that you couldn't help but put your all into every activity, only to find that what you got out was so much more. Without writing a novel I could only scratch the surface of how the week was spent.

Our base was the Calvert Trust. It was ideally located with an incredible view of Lake Bassenthwaite and sitting at the foot of Skiddaw in Keswick. We immediately broke the ice over cups of tea and giggles before retiring to the games room where our Group Leaders Clint and Liz took us through the week’s activities.

The week began with a climb up Latrigg. It was an excellent way for the group to get to know one another. As we were all pitching in equally to make the summit you got a chance to have a bit of a laugh with everyone. I was already learning very quickly about spinal injuries, particularly of the difficulties of balancing. Because of the absence of control over stomach muscles there could be a lack of core stability which could have made the descent quite tricky. However, a good bit of teamwork and some skilful balancing saw us get to the base in time for a very welcome lunch.

The next day was down to Lake Bassenthwaite for a day of kayaking and sailing. Cyril, a quiet retiring Irishman (ahem) from Belfast, had been a little nervous so opted to hop into a tandem with me. A brave move on his part I thought as I had managed to sink a canoe when practising on the swimming pool the night before. We then made like Redgrave and Pinsent, rowing in perfect unison while Cyril had me in stitches with joke after joke.

The afternoon was sailing. I teamed up with Alex and soon enough she had us tearing across the lake at white-knuckle speed with spray soaking us from head to foot. We then had an impromptu game of chicken with another yacht that Alex hadn't seen from her seat at the back and I hadn't seen as by that stage my eyes were firmly shut. Crisis averted we headed for shore.

Tuesday was the day I had been dreading – abseiling! With my love of heights by the time we reached the top of the Cragg I could feel my stomach doing somersaults. Alex led the way as she was transferred from her chair to a bucket support hooked up to the rope. She flew down without a hint of nerves, quickly followed by four more before it was my turn. Having hooked me up Nick, one of our instructors, told me that all I had to do now was step off the cliff, easy for you to say I thought. I was quite clearly wavering so was given a 3-count. As I stepped off my heart hammered for the nanosecond it took for the slack to be taken up on the rope before it hung me securely off the cliff face. The rest was a breeze as you eased yourself down while waving to onlookers and trying to pretend you do this sort of thing all the time.

The evening was taken up by wheelchair skills in the lodge gym with Nigel, our group skills expert. We were shown how to back-wheel balance, how best to get up and down steps and numerous other helpful tips. All of which we were allowed to put into action in a no holds barred wheelchair basketball match after.

Wednesday was option day. We could choose between either a canoe trip down river, sailing the catamaran on Windermere or land yachting. In the end the group split between land yachting and the river trip, I opted for the former.

The land yachting turned out to be rather a tame affair as the wind had died down by the time we reached the course. We eventually decided to hand-bike the couple of miles to the beachfront in nearby 'Royston Vasey'. It was good to have a bit of a break from the non-stop activity that had come before.

Wednesday evening we escaped the lodge and headed in Keswick. We found ourselves a good pub and settled in for the night. However, after Dean, the tetra I was rooming with, introduced the Sambuca most of us found ourselves in the local nightspot making like John Travolta on the dancefloor.

Luckily we didn't have to rise too early on Thursday, which gave us time to nurse our hangovers. We eventually left for camping at midday. We took a very gentle row across Bassenthwaite on our raft and unloaded our gear at the campsite. We then set about erecting our tents. Written instructions were thrown aside with disdain as we cracked on, which is probably why we were still banging in pegs about an hour and a half later!

The evening activity involved us constructing a lighthouse out of some foil, a battery, a bulb, a couple of paper clips and anything we could find in the woods. Our team's attempts were disastrous. We ended up an hour later with one of our number standing holding the bulb while another completed the circuit. I think if Ray Mears had been there he would have cried.

The rest of the evening was spent toasting marshmallows and drinking wine by the campfire. By 4am I was done and slipped back to my tent.

Back at the lodge on Friday we had a get together in the gardens so everyone could discuss what they felt they had got out of the week. The overwhelming response from everyone was that it had been enormous fun. For a number of the chair users they had completed activities they hadn't thought possible, for the buddies we had been through a steep learning curve and come out the other side with a much fuller understanding of more what those in chairs can achieve rather than the restrictions placed upon them. For many, including myself, they said that they hoped this would be a springboard from which they could continue to build and learn in the future. Having been there I have no doubt that this will be the case for all.