Margaret Cable: Back to the Bush!
After three long years, Margaret Cable is back to doing what she loves – ‘going bush’ to photograph the wildflowers and spend time in nature.
And there is plenty of it around her property in Toodyay, where her previous “townie” wheelchair couldn’t quite handle the terrain.
Seeing how this had impacted Margaret’s quality of life, her Occupational Therapist Michaela Van Zuylen advocated on her behalf to the NDIS for chair that would help Margaret live the life she wanted.
“She was finding that her old chair got her most places that she needed to go, but where she really wanted to go was the off-road trails where she used to go bush walking with her dog, Smudge,” Michaela said.
“She would say to me ‘no, it’s great’ and that it was giving her a lot of freedom, but it just wasn’t – she was really missing those trails.”
Determined to help Margaret get back out there, Michaela contacted Wild West Wheelchairs to find the best off-road chair option. After some trials, the AllTrack was the perfect fit and Michaela set about applying to the NDIS to make it happen.
Although it took almost a year of work to get it to Margaret, the pay off was all worth it.
“It's very rewarding, seeing the smile on her face when it arrived – she was just grinning from ear to ear the whole time. It was amazing,” Michaela said.
“Margaret and her husband also purchased a small motorbike trailer so they can go to other trails in the area – the plan is to explore and go places she couldn’t go previously.”
Margaret said the new powered wheelchair had made not only a huge impact on her life, but 7-year-old Smudge the dog’s life as well.
“It’s just opened up so much choice for him to go walking, the first day we went into the neighbor’s property he was running around, he had his little tongue hanging out and you could see the joy on his face for going somewhere different for a change,” she said.
It’s made a massive impact, not that anyone would ever think, on the dog’s life, as well as my life.
“I wanted to go into the forest to take pictures of the wildflowers and the orchids when they came out and that was the number one reason – and now I’ve already put 100kms distance on it!”
Margaret said she didn’t think it would be possible to get a new chair, but thanked Michaela and the NDIS for making her dream a reality. In her own words, “the lady done good!”.
“I get a few looks and people telling me I am pretty lucky to have the chair, but it’s like ‘you don’t have to tell me, I know!’,” Margaret said.
“I did say to Michaela to thank the NDIS for providing it to me, because it does mean so much to me.
“And now the neighbor has cleared the firebreak, so now it’s like a grand prix circuit – I’m off!”
