Wessex Warries, A Day Out

I have been playing powerchair football for 5 months now. 
By nature I am a very competitive person, so naturally I love the game. But it's an expensive sport, the club own the chairs for us to use, 8 in counting. So we look for sponsorship and we've been very lucky to receive this from AFC Bournemouth.

And we got a tour of the site as well. The iLevel did surprise me how at versatile it was, It could not be useful when you’re among other wheelchair users.

 I could easily wait at the back and still see what was going on. 
This not only made me feel part of the event but it helped increased my concentration, I would normally only use one sense but now i could use two, my eye and ears.

The Q6 Edge 2.0 also allowed me to take photo's of where the players were when they speak and analyse there performance on TV. 
This was pretty awesome and if I was in my old chair, I would have been too low and missed out on this moment.

 Our purpose of being there was to have a team photo, the first time I did this my iLevel was useful due to being at the back. 

This shot I got someone to take, In which I moved forward to bridge a gap.

  

Lets party!!

What will my chair be like when I am 80? 
I hate to imagine but my top end Q6 Edge 2.0 is a game changer, when at my grandmother's surprise 80^th birthday party. I really appreciated what the iLevel could offer me. 
- I was also hoping that I pressed the right button at the right time.

I was given the job of photographer for the day, as this is my favourite past time. I also took it upon myself to greet the guests, as I do a lot with my grandmother and I know her friends. Both of these tasks required me to be on iLevel.

Before I just accepted the fact that everyone had to bend to communicate with me and I realised that I would just talk to be polite, but now I was holding my own conversations.

It was great being able to photograph people and not looking up at my subjects.
I even got one of my grandmother cutting the cake.

But the best bit was being able to lead my grandmother up to the food table linking arms.

          I am now on the same level, Thanks to iLevel.

Sophie has a new perspective on ilevel

From the Left (Theo from Quantum, Bryan from Kinetic Mobility and Me

I was really nervous at first when picking up my new power chair. 
I recall the first day I received my first power chair, Bruce. 

When I got Bruce I wasn’t as petrified as I was seeing my new Q6 Edge 2.0. Perhaps this was due to when I got Bruce it was long over due.  

Over the years I have known that Bruce was on his way out, but I was used to him and knew him inside and out.
So when I moved from Bruce to my new Q6 Edge 2.0 (Sheldon) I knew straight away, how much this would change my life!


With my new power chair, the Q6 Edge 2.0, trust has to be built. Nonetheless, from the moment I first saw the demo chair at Kinetic Mobility (apart from the green colour), I knew it was going to change my life.

....There just was no going back!!

WIMBOURNE!!!! :)

The reason for all my nerves was more about the joystick control. Like many wheelchair users there were one or two joysticks on the market 4 years ago and they mostly worked in the same way. 

However turning the Q6 Edge 2.0. on was slightly different. The new Q Logic 2 control technology was a massive positive from my previous control systems. The Edge and its new control system gave me a great amount of value. It gave me a new way to access my powered controls, which is pretty important. 
It made me feel alive.

Before I was a person that could drive her wheelchair without thinking about what button to press. Yet when I came to using the new QLogic 2 Controls, it was hard to relearn, especially when it came to operating the Q6 Edge 2.0... Although it didn’t take long to adjust. 

The QLogic 2 power options control

With the control switches, I found them particularly difficult at first, as it was new to me.
The hardest part was working out which switch to press for the power function I needed. 

For me the easiest way to press switches is using my right hand, so I Bryan from Kinetic Mobility had them triggered, which means a one touch system, allowing iLevel to go up with ease, another press stopped it.

This is a good idea, but I struggled when with this concept in the pub and my power chair lever lifted the table... :) I guess this will take some time to get used to!

Talking about the pub, I was desperate for a drink. I tried out iLevel whilst treating my friend to a drink. As I’m quite shy and have a speech impediment (and I like a free drinks), I don't usually order drinks often, but this time at the right height it was so easy to speak to the bar man.

 

 

So on that note let the trouble begin...