Not everyone who gets an Omeo takes it for a spin on a ‘pump track’, but for 19-year-old Ava this was one of the first places she went – after the coast, of course.
Ava unwrapped her new Omeo on 1 January 2023, and she and her family headed straight for Filey Beach in North Yorkshire the next day.
‘It was the first time we’d all been able to go there for at least 18 months,’ she explains.
And the pump track?
‘That was a few weeks after,’ she recalls, ‘in the spring. We were out and my dad said why don’t you give it a go?’
In fact, she did a lot more than give it a ‘go’ – watch Ava in action on her new Omeo here
Enjoying student life to the full
Getting an Omeo has been ‘absolutely life-changing’, says Ava, who has been paralysed down her right side since she was 17 due to complications after a minor operation.
‘It’s 100 per cent made a difference: it’s been amazing. I’m back doing my sport – badminton and tennis – and I can go on bike rides wth my family again. I can go to the beach.
‘And it’s had a massive impact on my mental health.
‘It’s strange that a piece of kit can give you so much confidence, but I wouldn’t be the person I am today if I hadn’t got my Omeo. I probably wouldn’t have started my finance and accountancy degree in Sheffield if it wasn’t for this chair.
‘It’s enabled me to enjoy all the freshers’ activities and get to my lectures without help – plus my Omeo means I can get there really quickly if I’m running late!’
One of the Omeo’s other benefits is that Ava no longer attracts unwelcome attention from passers-by.
‘It looks so cool – people want to know about the Omeo, rather than stare at me and ask intrusive questions like why someone so young is using a wheelchair.’
A life-changing piece of kit
Before she got her Omeo, Ava – like many of our customers – had already tried numerous wheelchairs, both manual and powered.
However, because she can’t use her right hand, she still had to rely on other people to either push her chair, open doors or carry her things.
So how did she hear about our self-balancing tech?
‘I was at a Motability Show when I spotted Matt and Darren [our Sales Director and Omeo Trialist Stylist respectively] whizzing around on theirs,’ she recalls. ‘I’d never seen an Omeo and thought: ‘That’s a crazy bit of kit!’ but I was too nervous to approach them at the time.
‘Then a few days later the Omeo came up on my Instagram feed, I messaged Matt and he invited me to Harrogate for a trial.’
A wheelchair like no other
It was an unforgettable day.
‘As soon as I got on the Omeo, I could tell it was different to every other wheelchair out there – the way you move your body, the way it looks, its style… it’s on another level,’ Ava explains.
Was it easy to get the hang of? She laughs.
‘Matt will say I picked it up in five minutes, but I’d say it took my full trial to get used to it. I knew from the start that I had to learn the machine to become really confident on it.’
Today, Ava is an enthusiastic ‘Ambassador’ for Adapt Ability and, with her support worker, is starting to run ‘try me’ days for us across the north (when student life permits).
Like Matt, she’s also become an advocate for the Access to Work scheme, which many of our customers have already used to help buy their new kit.
In Ava’s case, she’s in the middle of applying for it to help fund a support worker and some new equipment, with the support of AccessibilityPartners.
Find out more about Access to Work and how we can make the process of applying for it easier in our blog https://www.myadaptability.co.uk/post/buying-an-omeo-how-the-access-to-work-scheme-could-help
Exploring new horizons
So what about the year ahead? Ava has exciting plans.
As well as continuing to enjoy student life to the full at SheffieldHallamUniversity, she’s keen to get on a plane and fly somewhere new in her Omeo.
‘I also want to continue to spread the word about this life-changing piece of kit,’ she says. It looks like she’s already made a fantastic start on that…