The day I conquered the Wheelchair Assault Course
I had never been on anything like PHAB before, so I was a bit nervous at first. But everyone was really friendly and helped to ease my nerves. I met some great people on that first camp I went on and have remained friends with many of them. I have Muscular Dystrophy and it's been great to have the opportunity to build a social life through PHAB. I so many great memories but there is one that stands out to me: and that is the day I conquered the Wheelchair Assault Course.
At first I wasn't sure that I wanted to attempt it because it looked pretty scary watching other people do it. But I managed to summon the courage to attempt the course with Ben Blackhurst. He helped reassure me that I could do it and that nothing bad was going to happen. The first part of the Course wasn't too bad but the hardest part was the two rope bridges. As soon as I wheeled onto the first rope bridge there was a huge shudder from the whole bridge shaking my chair, and I was saying “I want to get off this - I don't want to finish it - it's too scary.”
I was persuaded to continue and I made it to the end. I really didn't want to go onto the next bridge but I manged to get over the first bridge but I could see the end beyond it which was two planks of wood with a gap in the middle. That was even more terrifying than the one before because the planks would widen apart every time in bounced. I decided to do it quite fast just to end the course. It was one of the bravest things I had ever done up to that point in my life. I was relieved to finish it but also elated.
That's the great thing about PHAB - there is always people there to reassure you that if you try hard enough you can overcome obstacles and things that you think that you might not be able to do. At the same time they never force you to do anything you don't want to. They just give you courage to attempt the challenges you face.
