PICTURES: Disabled man (81) heads along Dunnet beach for first time in 17 years thanks to beach buggy
An 81-year-old took a trip along a Highland beach for the first time in 17 years thanks to a beach buggy wheelchair with big blow-up tyres.
The display was part of a special event staged at the popular beach on Thursday (September 26) and was put on by the Caithness Disabled Access Panel (CDAP) in partnership with Shopmobility Highland (Inverness) to highlight access issues that will hopefully see a better path built this year.
Helen Budge from CDAP said: “There’s a lot of different groups come along today and what we’re trying to do is get a beach buggy onto the beach.
“We’ve got to work out how much will need to be dug to get a path in for beach access. Norman [Macleod] has come up from Shopmobility Highland with a chair which we’ll be trying out today.”
Mrs Budge said she was on holiday in England where beach access was instated at a beach she visited. “I was able to get in the water with my grandchildren and it was the best thing that had happened for me in many years,” she added.
“Now that I’ve come back I want this to happen in Caithness. I’m so glad everyone’s come here today to prove that it’s definitely needed. There’s money in Caithness to apply for grants for these things. We worked out that Dunnet was the easiest option for this.”
Mrs Budge said she had liaised closely with Highland Council access officer Matt Dent. “We’ve talked about this for a few years but the practicalities of building a boardwalk have come to nothing,” said Mr Dent.
“We’ll do the path this year no matter what. It’s Highland Council land here.”
Mrs Budge added that her group was looking for grants for all the other work involved such as building a special hut to house disability beach buggies like the one used at the event on Thursday.
Norman Macleod, general manager at Shopmobility Highland, is based at Inverness and his organisation provides specialist mobility equipment for the disabled. “We purchased this beach wheelchair about three years ago and just want to make it available to any individual and any group that could make use of it,” he said.
“Helen got in touch with us and we were only too happy to come up today and make the chair available for this feasibility exercise.”
The CDAP plan involves getting a digger to create a better path for disabled access to the beach as well as building a shed to house the beach wheelchairs that would use a radar key to open it that people can buy.
Thurso and Northwest Caithness councillor Karl Rosie was also invited along to the event and said; “The striking thing is that you never think about these things when you’re able-bodied and we tend to take it all for granted,” said Cllr Rosie.
“Some of the disabled people here haven’t been on a beach in their lives and I think this is a really great initiative to get behind. You heard today that Helen has done a considerable amount of work. We want to ensure that she has the support and capacity to deliver this now and my intention is to see this happens.”
Cllr Rosie thinks that a further feasibility study should take place for beach access across the county. “We’ve got funding from, in particular, Crown Estates and coastal communities can benefit from these things.
“So I want to provide assistance to help them expedite the project and ensure we can realise accessibility across the county for all the fantastic beaches we have.”
The beach buggy wheelchair was pushed along the shore at Dunnet and glided along without a hitch during a sunny spell that afternoon. Roger Howson (81), who has Parkinson's disease, was wheeled along by his wife Wendy and accompanied by their daughter Jackie Johnstone who lives at Dunnet village. Mr Howson is a retired solicitor who lives with his wife in Hertfordshire and was up visiting his daughter when the opportunity arose to try out the specialist wheelchair.
“It was really very good and it’s wonderful to be back on this lovely beach with a bit of sunshine. I think I might have got a bit of a tan,” joked Mr Howson who had not been on Dunnet beach for 17 years.
“He was a keen sportsman before he had Parkinson’s and played rugby,” added his wife.
Angela Sinclair, a Key Housing enhance support worker, was at the event with service user Daniel Mackay who said he had not been on a beach for years.
“It’s absolutely amazing to see as there are things people just can’t do. Some people might never have been on a beach and this is a great thing for the community,” said Ms Sinclair.
Archie MacDonald, a relief support worker with Key Housing, added: “It’s about four or five years since Daniel’s been on the beach.
“This would be a good thing to have access to. Daniel and many others would greatly benefit from using the buggy. It’s so easy to use and very lightweight.”
Shopmobility Highland operates from the Eastgate shopping centre in Inverness and provides mobility scooters, power chairs, wheelchairs and rollators for people of all ages with long or short-term mobility problems.
CDAP is a group of individuals working towards “a better and more accessible Caithness”. The group is always looking for new members and guest speakers for its meetings. Visit the website for more info at: www.caithnessaccesspanel.co.uk/
Mrs Budge can also be emailed at: helenbudge@aol.com
