‘I MISS BEING OUT AND ABOUT’
Active 11-year-old Ada in wheelchair after being struck down with ME
SPORTY youngster Ada Brien had been active all her life. She climbed Snowdon, canoed the Menai Strait and abseiled into quarries. But last year – after being crowned Junior Adventure Tester by tourism group AdventureMap – the 11-year-old was struck down by ME, sometimes called chronic fatigue syndrome.
Since then she has been wheelchairbound or has needed to use sticks to help her walk. “It has been horrible,” Ada said. “I used to go out any time I could. But for the last nine months I have just been sitting on the sofa doing nothing.
“I’ve been too sore to even stand. I have been in so much pain.
“I’ve been in hospital quite a few times and it just happened overnight.” She became sick on Easter Monday, 2017. “I went for a walk on the beach and it just felt like it I had twisted both my ankles,” Ada, from Colwyn Bay, in Conwy, said.
“My hip started hurting the next morning. I couldn’t get out of bed.
“I didn’t know what had happened. We went to A&E but the doctor just sent me straight back home.” Things got worse. “That evening I had a terrible headache and I was screaming in pain,” the Ysgol Pen y Bryn pupil said.
“We went to A&E again. They did blood tests and everything but they could not see what was wrong with me.
“They did scans and all sorts. They said ‘We don’t know what it is “Then they said it was ME.” That stands for myalgic encephalomyelitis.
It has a wide range of symptoms. The most common is extreme tiredness.
“I was relieved I had a diagnosis and I could get a wheelchair,” Ada said.
“But also I was pretty horrified because ME is a long-term illness.
“I will never be the same again. I’ve been really down in the dumps for ages.” Ada’s mum also has the condition. Now stepdad Glyn Davidson has set out to make a wheelchair that can get Ada back into the mountains.
The 39-year-old has been tinkering with engines and computers all his life and has some engineering experience.
“I think it’s amazing,” Ada said. “Glyn’s been working on it for ages now.
“My mum does fairs and me and Glyn were displaying the bits of the wheelchair that Glyn had already made.
“We had a donation bucket and we raised £120. That was pretty cool.”
The contraption is dubbed the tain wheelchair”.
“The wheelchair will change my life because I will be able to go to the mountains again,” Ada said. “I’ve not done that for nine months. “I miss being out and about and being able to hike up the mountains and feel the joy that hiking up a mountain can bring.
“The first mountain we are planning to go up is Mount Snowdon, which is p pretty y cool, , “moun- because I’ve not done that for two years.
“It’ll be absolutely amazing. That will make me really, really, really happy.”
Glyn, 39, said Ada had been left debilitated by the illness.
“With ME there is mental fatigue as well as physical fatigue,” the lecturer said.
“We’re concerned as well because she has not been able to go to school since April.
“She has been completely out of sorts and does not want to go out and do the things that she used to.
“The plan is for the chair to be able to handle the rugged Llanberis path.
“It will need to be powerful enough to get up steep inclines and narrow enough to get through small gates.”
Most challenging will be the steep concrete staircase that marks the few metres to the summit.
The plan is to use wheels similar to a BMX.
“It will have its own independent motor and it will use the drive mechanisms of the Mars rover.
“I’ve done all the research into the materials I will use.”
The machine will be built using aluminium. “It’s light and it’s good for welding,” he said.
Mountain wheelchairs not cheap to make.
“I’ve already spent about £4,000, and it is going to cost another £6,000 or £7,000, and after that there will need to be revisions,” Glyn said.
“It has been self-funded although we have had some donations through the website.”
He’s been getting his stepdaughter involved “where I can”.
“I spend all my time doing this,” he said.
“I’m sure she would like to have a bit more time with dad, but she likes the idea of being able to get back outdoors, and to the top of Snowdon.”
If you would like to help, visit http://mountain w wheelchair.com/ are