Since my life took a change in 2011 I have tried to take and create opportunities to continue to live my life, not just exist in my life but to LIVE it. A tandem skydive, skiing in Bavaria, seeing how close to the top of Snowdon I could get, gliding and even microlighting are all things that I have taken part in and tried. The reason, because life is too short NOT to try different things. Granted I am fortunate that I can do a lot of these things due to opportunities offered by military charities but I, like so many others, chose to put on the uniform and do our bit. The fact that things are offered by these charities because we did that are not going to be overlooked or ignored and so I grab the opportunities whenever I can. To do some of them I need assistance and today, (Thursday 8th), was no exception, and whilst I had been fortunate enough to have a few people offer to go with me it was my Brother who called me to say that he was taking the day off to help me. So this morning at 07.00 I collected him from his house and we drove to Reading.

KARTFORCE had offered for wounded, injured and sick (WIS) veterans to have a try at Karting with a view to recruit people for the new seasons team. The last time that I had taken part in Karting was when I was with 3 Rifles in Edinburgh. We had returned from our exercise in Kenya and so went out for a “Company activity”, I will just put in here that I was the winner! (chuffed I was, the old man against the young lads!). I really enjoyed it when I did go Karting, it was adrenaline fuelled fun and was always a real treat when I did get to do it as it was not a regular occurrence. The offer therefore of Karting today was never going to be overlooked. I knew that I would struggle with transferring from chair to Kart but would hopefully be something that I could get better at but the Kart to chair was my major concern. I find it almost impossible to carry out split level transfers and since I gave up running I may have added a few pounds, kilogrammes, stone….tonnes. Suffice is to say that I have never been a large bloke and whilst I hate the way I am, I just can’t seem to lose the weight. Clearly with my weak wrists, having the extra weight is a problem. That is why I asked for someone to go with me today.

Getting in to the Kart was not as easy as I had hoped for. As soon as I moved to the edge of my wheelchair my legs wanted to fight me. I worked through it as quickly as I could and with help from my Brother, we moved my legs in to the Kart. I transferred by dropping down on to the edge of the Kart but was perched on the edge of the seat also. Effectively the edge of the seat was sitting in the crack of my arse, not the best place for it to be as it can cause bruising and sores but with my Brother moving my legs I quickly dropped down in to the seat properly. Then it was a quick fight through the spasms again to put my feet where the pedals would normally be (they are disconnected for hand controls). I was ready to race.

We had 15 minutes to race around the track and try to get a feel for the corners, the response of the Kart and the track in general. Also we were tested to check that we understood the different flashing lights that are visible around the track. I didn’t go all out initially as it was the first time that I had tried hand controls with a Kart and of course I had no idea of the speed that you could travel around corners. The track was quite hard work with some very tight turns and a steep slope up and down. The up slope you simply had to go “balls out” and you could maintain the momentum round the corner at the top and also on the down slope. At the bottom of the slope though was a hard left which took you back on yourself. This corner took me a while to get right, well not right but to a point that I could go round it without sliding in to the barrier or losing too much momentum, and it wasn’t on the practice that I was happy with it. With all of us successfully having had our 15 minutes of practice time, we were put in to 7 teams of 3 for an “endurance team race”. We would each race for 20 minutes. At the end of each 20 minute period the chequered flag would show and it would be a driver change. This made it more competitive for the paraplegic and wheelchair dependant racers, which our team of three had…three. The order that the Karts came in to the pits was the order that they left pits.

Our team was not last, but not in the top three, and to be honest I wasn’t really concerned. The fact was that the three of us had held our own on the track. I had really struggled with the transfers and that is in my mind now. I can’t think of the best way to carry out the transfer but with more practice I hope that it will become easier. The feeling when gliding and microlighting was brilliant. Skiing felt brilliant but in a different way. When I have been driven around a race track in fast cars it was different again but this, Karting, was whole different feeling. The adrenaline, the competitive streak, the thrill of the race and the chase. I was trying to think of words that I could use to describe and portray how the day made me feel, but I can’t. It wasn’t just a day of racing, it was a day of me doing another thing that I thought I had lost. So “Thank you” Dave, the founder and head of KARTFORCE. I had such an amazing time, and can honestly say that I really felt alive.

Here are a couple of very short videos.

Thanks for reading.

Good afternoon all.

Every so often life throws you something to check that your sense of humour is still working. My last entry told you of my wheel falling off of my manual wheelchair and trapping me in my chair in my bathroom for twenty or so minutes, which also tore a hole in the lino and also aggravated my shoulder. Well today I called the company responsible for the maintenance of my power chair to report a couple of things that I needed them to look at for me by way of some preventative maintenance and they arranged to come and sort it on Friday. Happy with the arrangement I got in to the power chair and headed up to town to get a few things. To get in to town I have four crossings to make, two crossings have traffic lights which for the most part are not ignored by drivers but the final set are far more like the starting grid of a race track. Suffice is to say that I never cross this road unless the lights say that I can go. I have lost count of the amount of cars and even lorries that have jumped the lights for whatever reason, hence my caution when using it.

I had completed three of the crossings and was around five minutes from the final crossing when my power chair juddered like there was something jamming the wheel. I stopped and looked as best as I could but nothing seemed obvious so once again I started to roll forward. I had travelled but a few meters when the juddering started again but before I had a chance to stop moving there was a loud noise like metal snapping and the chair stopped. I turned the chair off and leaned forwards to try to view the front wheels. Immediately I could see what the problem was. The front left wheel, which was one of the concerns I had reported just before leaving the bungalow, had snapped off at its mount which was clearly not good but by a stroke of sheer luck, when it snapped off and I continued to roll forwards briefly, the wheel stayed upright and the chair fell on to it which meant that it did not fall forward. Had it not landed on the wheel then it would have tipped forwards and left which would have caused me to fall but as I am strapped in to it, it most likely would have resulted in me being on the floor with the chair on top of me.

Unable to move I made the call to home hoping that my Wife would be there, which fortunately for me she was at home and came to the rescue. I had to transfer in to my manual chair which is also awaiting repair and as such is restricted to use inside the bungalow (after what happened last week) and then my Wife had to drive the power chair in to the “Chucklebus”. There was a harsh realisation that if we did not have the “Chucklebus”, or had she not been at home, I would have been somewhat stuck. I thought also of what would have happened had I been making the final crossing. I would have been stuck in the middle of the major road and I am not entirely sure if many would actually stop to help. I really do think that some drivers would simply have driven round me…if I was lucky enough for them to see me! So there is another problem that I thought I would share with you. Fortunately I was in the town where I live, with a vehicle that could move the wheelchair and my Wife was at home to help. So many times I have caught the bus to Taunton, and if it had happened there I think it is safe to say that I would have been up a certain creek without any paddles!

On a different note. On October the 10th, I am going to attempt to get to the top of Ben Nevis and Scarfell Pike. Accompanied by three of my very good friends and my eldest Daughter, I am going to get as far up these two mountains as I can to raise money for three of the military charities that have helped me since a road traffic collision left me paralysed in July of 2011. Without these charities I don’t know where my family and I would be. Please visit my fundraising page and donate as much as you can so that these three amazing charities can continue to help other members and veterans of our Armed Forces.

My attempt on Snowdon with very good friends and my Eldest Daughter. Have a read of how it went www.georgepas.co.uk/blog/attempt-of-snowdon

http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/Giving-Back

Goodnight all.