Stay Active Exploring the countryside
Picture courtesy of National Trust. Ashridge Estate ©NTPL/Michael Caldwell
Disabled Ramblers is a nationwide organisation, run by disabled people, with a special emphasis on rambling in the countryside using wheelchairs, powered pavement scooters or buggies. Many of its members have MS and have been able to enjoy the freedom that rambling can offer.
Disabled Ramblers organise a number of rambles in England and Wales each summer in places as far apart as the Peak District, the New Forest, the Quantocks, the Gower Coast, the Ridgeway, Norfolk Coast and Windsor Great Park. Rambles vary from 6 to 12 miles per day and are carefully chosen to ensure the routes are passable and barrier free, yet are interesting and through beautiful countryside. Rambles vary in their difficulty but all are accompanied by able bodied helpers and care is taken to find accessible toilets and stops for meals.
Eva McCracken, who was diagnosed with relapsing remitting MS in 1974, has written a guide called Walking on Wheels: 50 Wheel-friendly Trails in Scotland.
Other useful websites:
- The Ramblers Association
- The Ramblers Association is Britain's largest association for walkers.
- Sustrans
- Sustrans the sustainable transport charity, has information on making the National Cycle Network more accessible to everyone.
- The National Trust
- The National Trust has plenty of information on places to visit and a booklet about disabled access to all of their properties is available to download from their website.
- The Fieldfare Trust
- The Fieldfare Trust works with people with disabilities and countryside managers to improve access to the countryside. The Millenium Miles project is a register of countryside paths accessible to disabled people. Information packs to enable you to register Millennium Miles are available from the Fieldfare Trust.
Rambling is a wonderful way to rediscover a sense of freedom. It can be exhilarating and a good opportunity to make new friends.
Fell walking
Heather, who lives in the Lake District, had a very bad MS relapse in 1998. She wondered if she would be able to regain her physical fitness but started exercising as soon as she could, initially by attending a yoga class. She found this helped improve her balance, which had been very impaired, and the muscle strength in her legs. She then started walking near her home, close to the steep climb up to the top of Penrith Beacon. After an initial period of struggling with this climb and the ascent, she managed it almost daily for a period of about three years, before tackling the more serious summits. She says "I can't tell you what a feeling of elation I had when I first reached the height of 3,000 ft again. It sounds tame to my climber husband and daughter but it was a real achievement."
Heather has been able to start ticking off the Wainwright summits (those over 1,000 ft). It was the thought of wanting to continue fell walking that spurred her on but it was yoga that was the starting point for her return to fitness.