“... fulfil my dream in spite of a disability”
Kyle Suter, 28, from Oxford
I YEARNED TO join the St John Ambulance Cycle Response Unit (CRU), despite having the coordination disorder dyspraxia. It affects balance and fine motor skills and as a child learning to ride a bike was overwhelming.
As an adult I became a volunteer first-aider. To begin with I could only be a ‘foot soldier’. It’s taken three years, but this year I qualified and it’s transformed my life. I started out sitting in the middle of an empty street on a bike with the saddle as low as it would go, while trying to find the courage to pedal. I finally had that moment of pure excitement that most people get as a child when they balance for the first time while shouting, “I’m doing it! I’m actually doing it!” I rode into a hedge shortly afterwards but I’m pretty sure that’s a rite of passage.
Training involves learning to ride very slowly, to slalom and maintain your balance on a heavy bike (around 30kg) through moving crowds. Part of the ‘test’ consists of a 10km endurance ride and a 1km sprint followed by a solo resuscitation scenario. This entails radioing for assistance and then carrying out defibrillation, CPR and airway management on a dummy. Now I’m able to attend to people suffering from illnesses, trauma, or suffering with sunstroke or intoxicated at events like concerts, marathons and festivals in places where an ambulance crew may be delayed due to poor vehicle access. I also cycle around 30 miles a couple of times a week for pleasure, and when we’re not working myself and some of the CRU team go on long rides to the Chilterns. I’m planning to go off-roading in Wales soon too.