No one ever expects a mobility scooter to be used as a tool within any type of selfishness and cruel act like this but i imagine that had something else been situated there, that it would of been set ablaze, no matter what it was.

There is a suggestion that the couple had dealt with a problem in the area involving teenagers, and if this is the outcome because of that happening then its not only alarming that an individual or a group might go to this extent to retaliate but that they dont even look far enough ahead of their action to take on board that it leads to the actual loss of these two lives, which the police are now treating as a murder.

A mobility scooter outside a persons home should be safe, unfortunately it can be seen as a risk to leave one unattended for very long, but for one to be used as a tool within an arson attack is something that cannot be foreseen.

Its very sad indeed to know that this couple have died this way.

You can read more about the story here murder probe after elderly couple die in fire

Unlike some mobility aids that a user might change a few times over the years, as a stair lift is fitted and requires the rails being permanently in place, until a household no longer needs to have one in place it means that many people might have the same one installed for a number of years.

Saying that, some people are long term users of a stair lift and so might have tried a few different ones over the years and have been able to experience the different makes and models available.

If you have tried out a few over the years, you may have grown to like a particular make and might even prefer to stick to that specific name, even though you might upgrade over the years.

Do you find yourself preferring a particular one?

The fact that you feel that way though is actually a good thing, it just means that you are concerned enough about doing things properly and that you care for your own safety and that of others too.

Before long, any nervousness soon fades as you get used to using your mobility scooter and become comfortable with it.

Until you get used to it though, it can help to follow a bit of advice which i will provide here in order to help build your confidence so that you become fully comfortable with using your mobility scooter.

Also remember that how long it takes will differ for each person, it might just take all of 5 minutes for you to lose your nerves, a day or maybe a few weeks, thats fine, because eventually you will no longer feel nervous about using your mobility scooter and can get on with enjoying the mobility and independance that a mobility scooter provides.

Follow these tips and advice to lose your nervousness and build your confidence using your mobility scooter.

1. Familiarise yourself with the controls and how to stop the mobility scooter before using it.

2. Have an experienced person with you to help get you used to using your mobility scooter, if at all possible.

3. If you can, have a relative or friend take you and your mobility scooter to a quiet, flat grounded area that will allow you to practice using the mobility scooter, possibly a disused area of tarmac that is without debris.

4. If its your very first time, try to choose a dry day so that you dont have the worry of wet ground to concern yourself with.

5. Make sure that you feel comfortable, make any necessary adjustments, being positioned properly and being comfortably seated can make a huge difference to how in control you feel.

Once you have got used to the basics and get used to the feel of the steering, the speed and starting and stopping safely, then its a good idea to practice things like going from pavements onto the road to cross over a road and back onto a pavement on the other side.

Do this when you feel more confident and more at ease, dont force yourself to do anything too soon and before you’re really ready to.

You might suprise yourself though and be comfortable and confident using your mobility scooter sooner than you expect to.

Understandably, many homes have limited options in the way that you can arrange furniture so that you’re happy with the room while getting the most from the space that the room provides.

Its not always down to rooms being small either, sometimes a room can be shaped so that it will only provide you with a couple of options to position furniture.

There are homes though that may have the potential to make mobility much easier for you if you spend a little time planning so that furniture is positioned for the whole room to be comfortable for all that will want to use that room, while still allowing you to pass through the room easily, and to reach anything that is important to you and that needs to be close by to aid you with your mobility.

Ideally you should look at each room of your home, including hallways, entrances, even a conservatory as of course this is an extension of your home.

Although you might not have considered checking each room to see how you can improve the layout for your mobility at home, it might be the case that after you have checked your home that there is nothing that you can actually have moved around or removed and this is fine

It may be that you already have furniture and items positioned quite well or that the room just doesn’t lend itself very well to a shuffle around of things and that you’re best off leaving things as they are.

This may be true for one of your rooms, some of the rooms or the whole home, but its worth the small amount of time that it takes to see if theres any way that you can have the layout of the room so that mobility for you is as easy and obstacle free as it can be.

Many people learn to cope with the pain that they will experience, whether its constant pain throughout the day or pain that increases at times, although unpleasant, many people will get used to the fact that its either there most of the time or that it will be experienced more while moving or at certain times for certain reasons.

Everyone can get anxious at times, about a whole number of things in life, from money worries to family concerns and everyting in between, but when you are living with a disability and also pain that comes with it, that fear of pain and the anxiety that can seem to be permanently there for some people can almost be as bad as the pain itself.

The thoughts, once there can plague and trouble a person, you may know that to move a certain way will mean some pain experienced, or that something that will need to be done soon will also result in pain and this can make you extremely anxious as you begin to fear those movements, you begin to get worried about areas of your mobility, you want to be mobile but the fear of pain can sometimes lead to you avoiding the mobility that you want and like, to try and avoid some of the pain.

Unfortunately this eventually only makes matters worse, because you might reach a stage where you restrict your mobility so much to the point that the situation begins to get out of hand.

The anxiety builds even more when this happens, your mobility becomes severely restricted through your own choice of avoidance and it will often lead to further discomfort and more problems which then becomes a vicious cycle which you may find hard to get out of once you get to that point.

This doesn’t mean that the fear of experiencing that pain is an overreaction, afterall, the pain is very real and its natural that when you know what is going to happen that you become worried by it.

There needs to be an element of control by yourself, even though you know that some of the pain cant be avoided, which can be a depressing thought at first, you still know that your mobility is important and that to lessen the amount of mobility that you have, in order to reduce some of the pain that can be experienced is not ideal.

Although lowering your anxiety of expected pain is not easy, its never a good idea to simply have less mobility in order to reduce any chance of pain because ultimately it ends up adding to the whole situation in a negative way.

We will look at both here:

With regards to the first, when you take ownership of a mobility scooter, you should be able to find out quite quickly and easily how much use you can get from a fully charged battery.

If it isn’t stated in the documentation that comes with the make and model that you purchased, then the retailer where you bought it from should be able to advise you and then of course you can find out for sure by taking out your mobility scooter and using it for as long as it will allow you to before it needs to be fully charged again.

If you do try that, just make sure that you dont go out alone and find yourself stranded with a battery that is unable to get you back home.

Now looking at the life expectancy from your mobility scooter battery, this can depend on a few things.

The way in which you choose to charge the battery can have an effect on how long it will serve you before needing to be replaced.

One of the first things to do is to read and strictly follow any battery charging and maintenance advice that is provided within the documentation.

Keeping the terminals and the battery itself clean, making sure its secure, that the connections are secure and that you follow any charging instructions properly, also using what is supplied and not trying to charge the battery too quickly or taking risks with anything regarding this can not only mean a longer life for your battery but also greatly minimizes any risk of injury to yourself.

You can read more about how to charge a mobility scooter battery and when you reach the stage of needing to replace it with a new one you can read about purchasing a new mobility scooter battery which should not need to happen too often if you take care of it.

Even when a mobility scooter is brand new, and of course its battery and everyting else is brand new, there can sometimes be problems with it holding the charge properly from when you first start using the mobility scooter.

This may be no fault of your own and may be an issue with the battery itself, even though its new, or there can be a fault somewhere else on the scooter that may interfere with the battery being able to charge properly or to get the expected time of use from it.

Sometimes matters like this may be a little bit frustrating at first as you are probably doing everything as you should and may even take it back to the place that you bought it from a couple of times before they find out what the actual problem is.

The life expectancy of your mobility scooter battery and how far a distance you can travel before needing to fully recharge can both be estimated if you have a good healthy battery and everything else is in good working order and maintained well.

But as with most things in life, its not always possible to figure out how long you may get from either as there are always the exceptions to both the manufacturers and retailers expectations and your own.

As there are various makes and models of mobility scooters available on the market, it means that various problems can arise with one model that you may not see in another.

There can be known issues with any particular model of a brand and this can lead to readily available information and answers regarding an issue, as others before you will have encountered the same thing, and if they too like working on their mobility scooter then they will often be able to advise you on how to repair it.

So to be able to repair a mobility scooter yourself (if you have not attempted it before) it can be a good idea to start looking through any documentation that came with the make and model that you have, also there are sometimes troubleshooting pdf files and pages either on some of the retailers websites or at the manufacturers websites.

These can be good places to start as sometimes they have direct answers on different parts of the mobility scooter that you own, for example if there seems to be an issue with a particular area of your mobility scooter, then it will often be mentioned so that you can see if this is what is currently happening with your mobility scooter and what may be the cause.

As well as the above, you can often find very useful answers by performing a search in any of the main search engines, the answers that are already available to many previously asked questions can save you having to hunt around and even if you cant find the answer to your problem there is usually a way to post a question of your own.

Although a mobility scooter has nowhere near the amount of parts to worry about that for example a car does, there are still enough parts included that means it may take a little bit of time for you to become comfortable with doing repairs yourself.

Dont be scared to give it a try but do take your time, the owners manual that you receive with the mobility scooter is worth reading anyway, even if someone isn’t planning to do any repairs themself, but for those that want to its a very good place to start.

When you’re getting advice from someone you know regarding repairs to yours, do make sure that they are aware of the make and model that you’re working on and dont accept the old “oh thats similar to mine, it will fit or it will work, dont worry” unless they are really sure.

Dont expect to know your mobility scooter inside out straight away, it will take practice and time to know how to repair yours and although you wont want too many problems with your mobility scooter, it unfortunately takes something to go wrong most of the time for you to learn how to fix it.

You need to approach each repair job individually, no matter how simple or complex it may be, its good to try and narrow down what is causing the problem, so that you dont go buying a few parts to find out later that you maybe didn’t need some of them.

Understanding what part is needing to be repaired or fully replaced can help you the next time that you’re doing repairs, because you will have a good understanding of what that part does, what happens when its not working, maybe even how to prevent it from wearing out or breaking so quickly and saving you from buying other parts that you probably dont need to replace.

How you can repair a mobility scooter yourself is be reading through all documentation that you can find on the make and model that you own, that includes the owners manual, information that may be available about it at a website that you bought it from (if you purchased online) , the manufacturers site or sites that host pdf manuals of various products.

And looking for questions already answered on Q&A sites, also having a good look around your mobility scooter, even if theres no problems with it yet, it does no harm to take a look at where various components are situated on your mobility scooter so that you know where to look in the future when you do need to do a bit of repair work.

Although we should be used to coping with the various weather conditions that our climate throws at us, it appears that the majority of the time we are not.

We know each year that extremes happen, from heatwaves during the summer, and heavier falls of rain than expected to snow and icy conditions with freezing temperatures.

Its like each year we forget or ignore how it was last year or within the last few years and were seemingly caught off guard each time.

While for some people its not a good idea to venture out if its not totally necessary, it is still important to stay mobile at least within your home if you’re able to.

While you may have your home adequetly heated and might not have to worry about how you will pay the heating bill, if you are used to being mobile and have had to stay indoors more over the last week or so then any effort to still get exercise within your home, getting the blood circulating well and keeping yourself generally as active as you normally are will be beneficial for you when you are able to get outdoors again soon.

Sometimes if your body is out of its normal routine of activity for a week or more then it can make some people feel a little unsteady, the muscles can feel a bit weaker if they have not been used as they normally would and might make a person feel a little unsure when they venture outdoors again.

By keeping those muscles moving and working you can prevent yourself from experiencing any unsteadiness when you are able to go outside more again when the majority of the snow and ice has cleared.

Stay warm during this cold weather, stay safe and stay as mobile as you normally would, even if it is mostly indoors for the time being.

Truemobility have a solution called elephant feet as seen in the image and they are available in two sizes, the 4″ set and also a 5.5″ set.

What they do is allow you to raise a chair or a bed if there are legs in place and they add those extra few inches so that what you choose to add them to is now slightly higher making it easier for you to get into bed or positioned in your chair and also useful when you are ready to exist either of those.

They are made from plastic, with the 4″ set priced at £15.50 and the 5.5″ set priced at £18.00

Thanks to all who have commented on the articles posted and i hope that you continue to share your thoughts and views regarding mobility products, living with disabilities and anything related.

If you would like to see more of anything in particular here, or maybe less of something, please do feel free to mention it contact

Wishing you a great 2010

Thanks
John