“I couldn’t imagine anything worse”
“You didn’t live my life before it”

Lots of people seem to think that becoming a wheelchair user is a terrible and tragic thing, when to me it was such a positive thing. Before I started using my wheelchair, I was barely able to go outside, and I pretty much just went to the pharmacy down the road once a week. I would be stuck in my bed for days after every outing and was experiencing so much constant pain and fatigue that I couldn’t do very much. Using my wheelchair has allowed me to do SO much more, including holding a full-time job, living alone independently, picking up a new sport and actually have a fulfilling life.

So when people say “I couldn’t imagine anything worse than being in a wheelchair”, I always think “I can, because living with my conditions without it was so much worse”. People see being in a wheelchair as restricting, because they are comparing it to their non-disabled experience of life. For many wheelchair users, we’ve struggled for a long time, and finally getting a wheelchair means gaining FREEDOM and INDEPENDENCE 🧑‍🦼🧑‍🦼