North Berwick’s Beach Wheelchair Story

A short video by Hugh Trevor

 0:04 [Music]

0:11 Almost everywhere in Britain is within

0:14 40 miles of the coast so an outing to

0:17 the seaside is part of everyone’s summer

0:19 fun,

0:21 sitting on the beach in the sun,

0:24 playing in the sand or in the sea.

0:27 We’re just walking along the sand,

0:30 activities most families can enjoy

0:32 together,

0:34 but when a family member is disabled, the

0:36 seaside is much less fun.

0:41 Where the sand is hard a buggy can be

0:43 pushed along easily enough, especially if

0:46 the wheels are large.

0:48 But where the sand is softer and the

0:51 wheels are small that is more difficult.

0:55 Where the tide never reaches, pushing a

0:58 buggy is almost impossible.

1:01 It is easier to carry the wheelchair.

1:05 It is against this background that a new

1:08 project has been started in a town

1:10 called North Berwick which lies 22 miles

1:13 east of Edinburgh,

1:15 the project being the provision of large

1:18 wheel beach chairs for disabled people.

1:22 “My name is Alison Brown, I’m part of

1:24 beach wheelchairs that are operating

1:26 from the beach hut in North Berwick. I

1:30 got involved with the project because my

1:32 son is seven years old and has brittle

1:34 bone disease so he predominantly uses a

1:37 power wheelchair for getting around and

1:38 he also sometimes uses a manual

1:40 wheelchair. Obviously that makes it

1:42 really difficult for us to get onto the

1:44 beach.

1:44 We were on holiday in France a couple of

1:47 years ago and we were able to hire a

1:49 beach wheelchair when we were there just

1:51 from a lifeguard and it was brilliant to

1:53 just let us explore the whole of the

1:55 beach area and get right up to the

1:57 seashore and get into some of the

2:00 shallow rock pools as well. I just came

2:02 back from that holiday really enthused

2:04 about trying to do something similar in

2:06 one of our many beautiful beaches in

2:08 East Lothian and which is why we got

2:10 together in November last year,

2:13 2014,

2:14 just got a group of interested people

2:17 together to see whether we could start

2:19 up a beach wheelchair hire scheme in

2:22 North Berwick.”

2:23 The first needs were to buy a number of

2:25 specialist wheelchairs and build a hut

2:28 near the harbour in which to store them.

2:31 A ceremony was planned for Saturday the

2:33 18th of July to celebrate the first use

2:36 of the wheelchairs, with Ian Rankin as

2:39 special guest.

2:41 The wind that day was too strong to hold

2:44 the ceremony outside by the new hut,

2:46 so it was held in the East Lothian Yacht

2:48 Club nearby.

2:51 Alison opened the meeting

2:53 welcoming all guests and supporters.

2:58 “Hi, I’m Ian Rankin in North Berwick where

3:01 I’m just opening the beach wheelchair

3:04 centre which is a wonderful new

3:06 initiative which has been funded by the

3:08 local community and it’s an ingenious

3:11 solution to a very big problem, which is

3:13 people with mobility issues how do you

3:15 get them onto the beach? How do you get

3:16 them down to the water’s edge and it was

3:18 impossible with a normal wheelchair but

3:21 these new beach wheelchairs are the

3:23 solution, so it’s a real joy to be here.

3:25 I’ve got a son who has special needs,

3:27 he’s in a wheelchair and I’ll be

3:28 bringing him here the first opportunity

3:30 so we can make use of this fantastic

3:31 initiative so well done to North Berwick

3:33 and congratulations.

3:37 Thank you.

3:43 Thank you.

3:46 Afterwards all went outside and Ian cut

3:49 the ribbon to signal the project’s

3:51 opening.

3:52 Alison’s boy was another special guest.

3:56 Well-wishers gathered round to see three

3:59 chairs already purchased.

4:01 They had been very expensive to buy.

4:06 A few days later, a reporter from BBC

4:09 Radio Scotland came to record Alison’s

4:12 story.

4:13 The recording is taking place in the

4:16 entrance of the hut, sheltered from the

4:18 wind, a perennial problem when recording

4:21 in North Berwick. The programme is to be

4:24 broadcast in 10 days time.

4:28 Alison’s parents came over from

4:30 Northern Ireland to be with her on this

4:32 special day and to enjoy the new

4:35 wheelchair with their grandson.

4:38 “Hello, I’m Hilary, I’m Alison’s mother

4:40 and I have come over from Northern

4:42 Ireland to see for myself this wonderful

4:45 project that Alison has brought from just

4:48 a thought from coming back from holiday

4:50 to the reality of being able to take

4:52 children onto the beach and experience

4:56 what all other children can do and

4:58 adults too and this is just wonderful.”

5:11 “My name is Len Groom and I’m a volunteer for the beach

5:16 wheelchair project.

5:18 This allows people to get on the beach

5:23 and one of the comments we had from

5:26 one lady

5:27 said that it was the first time she had

5:29 been on the beach for 30 years.

5:32 Thursday, we had a girl about oh seven or

5:37 eight possibly

5:39 and they were out on the beach from half

5:41 past one till five o'clock.

5:44 When they came back

5:46 the smile on her face just made it

5:50 so worthwhile

5:52 and it’s creating interest elsewhere.

5:55 We had someone over from Fife Rangers

5:59 so they're going to start up in Fife.

6:03 We’ve had in people from Blyth in

6:05 Northumberland

6:07 um

6:08 we even had someone yesterday

6:11 who came from Canada

6:13 and thought it was a brilliant idea and

6:16 they’re taking leaflets back to Canada.

6:18 People say why hasn’t it been done before?

6:23 If you have a look at the buoy just

6:25 beside me,

6:26 we asked people to write comments on

6:29 their experience with the beach

6:30 wheelchair.

6:31 We had one lady who wrote on it, I have

6:35 lived in North Berwick for 20 years,

6:37 never been able to get on the beach and

6:40 today has the been the best fun I've

6:43 ever had.

6:44 Comments like that,

6:46 that makes it all so worthwhile for us.”

6:51 “Hi, I’m Melanie Kay, we’ve been using the

6:55 hippocampe beach wheelchair today. My son

6:58 Charlie Kay who's eight years old has

7:00 cerebral palsy and he uses a walking

7:03 frame and a wheelchair to get about and

7:05 we’ve used the the wheelchair today, the

7:08 beach wheelchair to access the lovely

7:11 beach. We’ve had a walk right along the

7:12 beach and we’ve been able to go down to

7:14 the water’s edge.

7:16 These are things that prior to this

7:17 scheme that we’ve not been able to do so

7:19 it’s been a really lovely, lovely day out

7:22 for us and it’s a fantastic resource

7:24 that we have here and we just want to

7:27 say a huge thank you to Alison and

7:29 Jackie and for bringing this scheme to

7:33 North Berwick. And also I have been

7:36 doing some volunteering as well.”

7:38 “My name is Alan Black, I have my two kids

7:52 here, this is the first time we’ve been

7:54 on the beach for a very long time. It’s

7:56 uh due to these wheelchairs that they’ve

7:58 just introduced down here in North

7:59 Berwick.

8:00 It’s a fabulous idea, I don't know why

8:02 it's not been done before, it means we

8:04 can bring both children to the beach

8:06 anytime we want. And because it's

8:09 charity based it’s free, just a free

8:11 donation if anything so that’d be a

8:14 great idea and it means we can enjoy

8:16 days out like this.”

8:18 “Hi, I’m Jackie Tagg, I started getting

8:21 interested in beach wheelchairs last

8:23 year when my friend saw them in Cornwall.

8:26 My mother and my brother were both

8:29 wheelchair users and it was interesting

8:31 to me to see that there was a way that

8:33 people could get on the beach.

8:35 During my research I met Alison Brown

8:37 who was also looking at the project

8:39 because her son Ethan is a wheelchair

8:41 user so we hooked up together and

8:44 started our journey to get beach

8:46 wheelchairs in North Berwick.

8:49 So we’ve been going a season now, we’ve

8:51 had over 40 bookings and we’ve got a

8:54 team of volunteers and we’re all

8:56 delighted with the results, so we hope

8:59 that you’ll join us down at the beach

9:01 hut and encourage others who have access

9:03 difficulties to come along and borrow

9:06 for free one of our beach wheelchairs.”

9:10 Most of those who use the beach chairs

9:12 are children

9:14 but one of the chairs is for disabled

9:16 adults and teenagers and that is the one

9:19 that is in use today.

9:22 Each time a wheelchair is used this

9:24 represents an hour of joy for this

9:26 disabled person and an hour of

9:29 relaxation for their carers. Why didn’t

9:32 someone think of this before?