Mommy Blogger On Wheels

“No matter what your abilities or limitations are, the best thing you can do for your children is to love them unconditionally,” says Ali Gibson, 42, a paralyzed mom who blogs about her life.

Injured in 1996 when she was 23, Gibson is a T12 complete paraplegic. “I was in a park while on holiday in Tenerife

[largest of the Canary Islands, Spain] and a severe wind storm brought a tree down. It struck me from behind. I heard the ‘crack’ of the tree breaking and I was knocked to the floor. My spinal cord was severed in three places after the fall and I was paralyzed instantly.”

A lifetime resident of the Midlands, U.K., initially Gibson wasn’t hopeful post-injury. “The transition was much, much harder than I expected, and the reality of my spinal cord injury hit me hard,” she says. “I had no peer support and many of my friends felt awkward around me, so my social life dwindled.”

Her entire outlook changed once she moved out of her parents’ house and started school. “I began to carve out a new life and a new ‘normal’ for myself. I studied psychology at university, graduating with a first class honors degree in 2006.”

And her happiness levels really surged when she rekindled a romance with an ex-boyfriend, James, several years post-injury. The two fell in love all over again, got married in 2007, and a year later had a baby, Sarah, who is the inspiration for Ali’s blog — Parents in Wheelchairs — where she shares her experiences, tips and product advice on parenting as a paraplegic.

She also started a Facebook group called Parents in Wheelchairs that helps parents of all different SCI levels learn how to parent as independently as possible. “We have 276 members from all over the world, but mainly the United Kingdom and the United States. It’s amazing!”

Go to www.parentsinwheelchairs.com

A Good Kind of Shock
A quad-owned company, QuadshoX, has created a rear-wheel suspension system for tilt-in-space manual chairs, and it may change your mind about the possibility of a silky smooth ride. John Morris, from Fort Collins, Colo., knows a thing or two about the importance of a smooth ride. A C5 quad who was injured several years ago at the age of 18 while snowboarding, Morris has always hated being subjected to a bumpy ride. So his company came up with the QX-1, a retrofit-suspension kit to be made for manual wheelchair users. “The idea has gone from a dream to reality,” says Morris, who collaborated with students at Colorado State University to design the kit in 2014.

The device works by redirecting the force of a crack or bump from the wheel and frame to the shock. The kit can be installed on any pre-existing wheelchair. QuadshoX ran a Kickstarter campaign earlier this year for funding their QX-1, which will be launched this fall.

Learn more: www.quadshox.com

Traveling SCI Photo Exhibit Now Online
If you love photography, then you’ll love Reinventing the Wheel, a collaboration between BACKBONES and the National Museum of Health and Medicine, Chicago. After being shown in Chicago, New York, Portland, Ore., and Vancouver, Wash., the photo gallery profiling the 21 people with SCI can now be viewed online.

View the gallery: www.vmuseum.com/rtw.

---

Support New Mobility Wait! Before you wander off to other parts of the internet, please consider supporting New Mobility. For more than three decades, New Mobility has published groundbreaking content for active wheelchair users. We share practical advice from wheelchair users across the country, review life-changing technology and demand equity in healthcare, travel and all facets of life. But none of this is cheap, easy or profitable. Your support helps us give wheelchair users the resources to build a fulfilling life. donate today