An honest opinion – Learning to live with a spinal cord injury.

Meet Tracy's experience, she was kind enough to share her story with us. This is an honest customer's review and we are absolutely amazed by your kind words.

“In 2014 my life took a dramatic turn when I suffered an incomplete spinal cord injury after two vertebra in my C-spine collapsed as a result of having ongoing rheumatoid arthritis.

I was instantly paralysed from my neck down and knew was serious and was told I might not survive.

I was admitted to the spinal cord injury centre at Royal National Orthopedic Hospital in Stanmore and underwent three surgeries to stabilise my spine, followed by six months in a rehab ward.

I needed a lot of help at home from a team of carers and my house was made accessible by the local authorities.

Unfortunately, the council’s funds did not include access into my back garden which was a huge loss for me as I loved my garden.

The steps to my garden were very steep so I had no way of getting out there.

After speaking to The Ramp People I realised that I needed quite a long ramp to get me out safely, but it was going to be quite costly, they advised me on a Modular ramp system and did their best to quote for my project needs.

A friend had suggested doing a Just Giving page where you can tell your story and do your own campaign to raise the money.

I went ahead to set up the Just Giving page with the support of Aspire, a charity who support people with spinal cord injury. Aspire then received 7% of the total raised in return for promoting the campaign.

I also placed the page on my social media and asked everyone to re-share.

I was amazed and quite overwhelmed at the response I got from friends, family, colleagues, neighbours and even friends of friends whom I’d never met!!

The charity Aspire were also able to share, resulting in an anonymous large donation.

I had so much support, not only donating but spreading the word.

The final figure was reached in 4 months, as surprisingly I received the gift aid as well as the donation.

The Ramp people, especially Shane and Rodrigo, were very patient with me and talking me through (several times) what was needed to be safe as well as making sure it would accommodate the measurements and weight of my power wheelchair.

Further paving was then needed to the area where the ramp would be positioned, to make it level, so my ramp measurements changed more than once!

Once ordered, the ramp travelled from Sweden, taking about three weeks and was delivered in sections to my driveway.

The ramp was from the Lightweight modular ramps system range and It was light enough to be carried by one person to the back garden, and then the big day arrived when a builder friend of mine put it together like a massive meccano set.

I am so happy with the whole experience from dealing with The Ramp People to the end product, the ramp looks fabulous and best of all it has given me my independence back.

Tracy”

Here is Tracy's new ramp.

We, at The Ramp People, especially Shane and Rodrigo would like to thank you Tracy, for sharing this with us. We are truly happy we were able to be a small part of your story.