Customise satisfaction

Walking aids like wheelchairs, walking sticks and crutches are not made with style in mind but an ugly grey crutch or utilitarian looking wheelchair can really ruin an outfit. Lara Masters looks at ways to style up mobility gear and say bye bye to bad chair days

I love to look good and I’m very particular about what I wear. Generally, I would not choose to dress in a rigid metal and plastic frame accessorised with large rubber wheels and a battery pack but, if I want to get around, that is my necessary outer garment. There is an answer to this disability dilemma; customising.

It’s a simple word but if you add a little bling to your disability kit you get some serious sugar. By sugar I mean love. Attention. Adoration. You may even get your very own stalker.

My last power chair was a black hulk of a machine, intimidating, tank-like; it scared people. Then I adorned it with 88 red velvet roses and not a day passed when I didn’t get hordes of people coming up to me and admiring them – and me – as the social barrier of disability was dissolved in those scarlet petals.

I have just got a made-to-measure lightweight power chair (TiLite with an E-Fix power pack from Gerald Simonds); it’s sleek and sexy as far as wheelchairs go (and this one goes many nights’ dancing to a charge). I’m mid-customising my new ride now; I’ve painted a large silver glitter skull on the back and covered the wheels in black and silver mesh. I’ll be adding a cornucopia of Swarovski crystals, black roses and silver spiders. Gothic. Yet sparkly.

Debbie Deboo is another disabled woman who has also learnt the art of winning friends and influencing people with a couple of cleverly placed rhinestones. “Now I almost constantly need a wheelchair, even going out for a little while in the wheelchair ruins the rest of the day for me and I just sleep.

“I used to be a fun loving, party attending, social events organiser and I taught Religion and Philosophy. When I got ill, I lost my job. I lost my friends.

“I’m still the same intelligent, vibrant person but I find I can’t remember things, I suddenly can’t spell, I can’t read books. I prided myself on my achievements and intelligence. I have excellent qualifications and won a scholarship to university, now my head hurts when I try to think.

“It was when I started using an elbow crutch for support on the times I tried to walk that I had an idea. I’m a colourful person; I love clothes, shoes, bags, beautiful things. I had already covered my wheelchair in diamante but the crutch I had was grey... that couldn’t be! So I started accessorising crutches to suit various outfits. I got so much positivity and so many comments whenever I used my stunning sticks that I decided to start a little business making them to order and Glam Sticks was born!”

But, says Debbie, Glam Sticks aren’t just pretty crutches; they are a form of social empowerment. “In the past people would look at my crutches and look away, maybe embarrassed to confront disability, but now they look at my crutches, smile and then look at me and keep smiling. Sometimes they stop to talk to me whereas before it was almost as if I didn’t exist. Glam Sticks has given me something to live for and a way to help other disabled people experience what it’s like to get a continuously positive reaction to their disability.“

Debbie and I have found cult-status from jazzing up our disability aids. Anything from hearing aids to white sticks and scooters can be easily customised, so join us! Love is just a spritz of spray-paint away.