It's not a lawn mower

For some time, I have been looking for a solution for pushing a manual wheelchair over rough ground. I have cerebral palsy and have been a wheelchair-user for many years. My arms are quite strong but now I need power to get me moving. I have looked at a variety of gadgets and up until now I have not found anything that I felt happy with. I do not want a power-chair, although I expect that day will come, but what I want is a device that I can attach to my manual wheelchair that will enable me to boldly go where no other manual chairs have gone before.

I found the perfect answer to my problem at the Beyond Boundaries show in late June, when I met Andrew Little of Ahead, the UK sole dealer for Swiss-Trac.
A device that fits to a manual wheelchair and gives it power, stability and, most importantly, off-road capabilities, Swiss-Trac was developed by Swiss engineer Josef Jakober, who is a C5/C6 tetraplegic.

Swiss-Trac is a  one-horsepower, 24-volt, battery-powered, four-wheel drive wheelchair tractor. A detachable bracket is fitted to an ordinary manual wheelchair. The tractor has a hinged bar that locks into the bracket.

With regard to performance, its speed is adjustable up to six km per hour. It has a range of 30km on level ground and it can go up a slope of 20 degrees.
Back home in Eastbourne, my husband and I decided to arrange a test-drive.

 Andrew, who drove up from Gloucester, unloaded Swiss-Trac from his van, and it was love at first sight. I took Swiss-Trac for my first trial run down to our local shops. This might not sound like a good test for an off-road device but the pavements in our area are diabolical. If I could happily traverse this terrain, I could go anywhere. It took a little practice, but I can now attach and detach the Swiss-Trac fairly easily from my chair without assistance.

It also took a little while to master kerbs, slopes and listing pavements. Swiss-Trac lifts the front wheels of the wheelchair off the ground, so there are fewer bumps, and by pushing the handle to use its forward set of wheels, it is possible to have a smooth ride even over bumpy surfaces.

The downside is that it is heavy (though it means it won’t tip over) and can be difficult to load into a car. It comes with two ramps for loading but I am not really able to do it without assistance. A hook can be fitted so that a hoist can be used.

The order was placed and, within a few weeks, Andrew was back with my new toy. For my first outing, we took it to the Cuckoo Trail, which is a disused railway line that is now a cycle path. It was brilliant and coped well with the uneven ground. Since then, I have been along the Cuckmere Valley over some very rough ground and even up a steep shingle bank.

Everyone I meet is very interested in the Swiss-Trac even though they all think it is a lawn mower.

• Swiss-Trac: £3,999 for adult size, £3,899 for child’s version (hooks and second bracket are extra). Phone orders can be made by calling Communic8 on 01452 540783 or email ahead.al@googlemail.com