General   (General discussion, talk about anything.)

I used to have a very close friend who was wheelchair bound.

She had been a very active person. She sustained a C5 (I think, pos C3: it's a long time back to remember) spinal injury, when she turned over a racing car in the States.

One of my lasting memories is a photograph of her, rock climbing. She could do the handholds, but no feet support. So there she is handholds on a sheer face on Stanage Edge, with the team hauling stirrup ropes to hold her feet, and ropes also raising the chair behind her.

God, she had some spunk!

(I guess the stirrup ropes were looped through carabiners on her belt: I doubt she could have produced thrust against the stirrups.)

Unfortunately one day a burglar broke in, and when he pushed her chair away from her bed she was helpless and petrified: unable to do anything, as she watched him help himself. What a vile miscreat he be.

Last time I saw her, she and her dad were making arrangements for he to return to live with him. It coincided with my leaving of Manchester at short notice, so we lost touch.

C'est la vie.