Sue Marshall and her Freedom Bike

“The Viper Power Cycle I call my FREEDOM BIKE as it goes where no other wheelchair that I have had goes. It comes apart and it will go in the plane Jeep and most taxis, it’s very mobile and I could not have done my trips without my FREEDOM BIKE”.

Three years ago I wanted to go on a safari, but most travel agents said I was not fit enough. I kept looking and came across an English guy Steve who now lives in Kenya. Steve organizes personalized holidays for disabled people and there families. I wrote to him and explained that although I had MS I loved adventure and doing out of the ordinary things. Steve wrote back and said that I sounded the sort of person he would be interested in doing a safari with.

We crossed the Chalbi Desert with the Viper which would not have been possible in a ordinary chair and this includes my All Terrrain chair as it would have been to heavy to transport on the plane and in the Jeep. We traveled all over Kenya and even stayed in a Massi family camp. The children and adults had never seen anything like the Viper before and of course they were fascinated and all wanted a go on it.

From there the following year I went to Uganda gorilla trekking across Bwindi national park, over terrrain that most people would not consider on foot let alone with a wheelchair and trike. We went chimp trekking at Kbwale national park where the terrain was even rougher. Where the chair could not go over trees the porters who accompanied us help lift the trike over. We covered miles and i saw many chimps and gorillas a sight i will never forget and an experience that whether you are disabled or not should try to do

Steve had turned stones and gone out of his way to make the safari’s possible and in turn I decided I would like to do some think for Africa. He said that he knew a guy that could do with help. APDK (Association for Physically Disabled in Kenya), it is run by guy called Duncan Mwangi Ndegwa who is disabled himself, in fact all the employees in the office are disabled but of course they do have few able bodied people on the team.

They have rehabilitation centers in Kenya for the children with a teams of physiotherapists, also a team whose aim is to assess the patients and give ideas how they can be helped. They make the wheelchairs there, very basic I have to say, they also make hand 3 wheel cycles for those who cannot walk but can use their arms we have been fund raising this time for those trikes.

The children suffer from various diseases polio, brain disease, lack of vitamins when their mum’s were pregnant so are born deformed in some cases very severely, some children have no limbs. The people in kenya and surrounding areas cannot afford to buy wheelchairs for their children, some children are abandoned and quite a few are put into homes because the parents cannot cope or more to the point they cannot afford the aid that their children need, because of this many children are left to die or left flat on their backs for years.

If you would like to find out more please visit http://www.apdk.org