ME/CFS disabled man's airport plight

[JemPD]

https://inews.co.uk/news/real-life/...Cjmffc-72Kg1mYZe8ir8JLJGQFiCCKF6p5en0VqHzzEeE

Absolutely appalling treatment of this poor guy while travelling. Disgraceful.

And what he's trying to do to give encouragement to those who are well enough to travel but might be too nervous/whatever, is admirable. Good on you Olly I hope your next trip will be radically easier!

But I do wish more care would be taken in how these things are reported...

Olly Vaughan Jones has spent ten years living with severe myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME). Having been bed-bound for around four of them, last year he promised himself he’d push beyond his boundaries and travel more. And while he visited Buenos Aires, he was – ironically given what happened to him – filming his experience to encourage other disabled people to feel that they too can venture further afield.

I'm sure what he was meaning was that after being bedbound for 4yrs he found himself recovered enough to sit up in a wheelchair, & to manage the physical & cognitive demands of travelling alone (assuming it went rather better than it did).
But the way it reads is that he'd been bedbound for 4yrs & then just promised himself that instead of being bedbound he'd "push himself" to get up & go travelling, without support, to South America. As if people who are bedbound from ME can 'push themselves' to change their situation <sigh>

As if they wouldn't give everything they had to be able to get themselves across the hall to the toilet, or even downstairs to lie on the couch, or sit up at a table & eat a meal with their family. Which is impossible regardless of how much they 'pushed themselves'.

A carer costs about £9 an hour so that makes going on holiday with a carer unaffordable for most disabled people.

Wow.... where does he live... £9 ?? thats crazy cheap... in my experience the cost can be closer to £19, esp if you get agency staff... do we think it's a misprint or?

 

[Trish]

Wow.... where does he live... £9 ?? thats crazy cheap... in my experience the cost can be closer to £19, esp if you get agency staff... do we think it's a misprint or?

I pay the care agency £15.75 for a half hour visit. I'm not sure how much the charge for a full hour. Well over £20 presumably. The carer gets £9 per hour, plus travelling time and mileage allowance.

I guess if you employed a carer privately you might get them for £9 per hour, since that's all they get from the agency.

 

[ukxmrv]

It's money and lack of physical functioning that stops me from travelling. Also safety. Just common sense stuff. That's what stops me venturing further afield.

Not in the slightest bit surprised that this happened. Any hiccup in the air system dumps hundreds or thousands of people into chaos and the system in place for disabled help disintegrates.

I've had a plane diverted to another airport and no air-bridge and stuck there with no help at all.

Airports have gone a long way in things like help points for disabled travelers but that's useless if you can't physically get to one.

The European directive did help (in my opinion) but what happened here is a risk of travel for anyone disabled and alone. I'm not sure how useful it is filming himself traveling is - unless it is to record things like what happened here.

He could have been robbed of his wheelchair in a foreign country. Had food poisoning and not been able to move. It's dangerous for a lone disabled person to travel without resources. We need to take the risks into account and plan as best we can and then decide.

There's a lot more to disabled travel than needing the simple stuff explained to us.

 

[Simbindi]

I pay the care agency £15.75 for a half hour visit. I'm not sure how much the charge for a full hour. Well over £20 presumably. The carer gets £9 per hour, plus travelling time and mileage allowance.

I guess if you employed a carer privately you might get them for £9 per hour, since that's all they get from the agency.

You would have to register with the Inland Revenue as an employer, be liable for employers' NI, be responsible for administering the PAYE, pay holiday and statutory sick pay, pension contributions plus any redundancy payment that might become due. If the carer was registered self-employed (you would be responsible for checking this), they would be charging a higher rate.

https://www.skillsforcare.org.uk/Em...ers/Information-for-individual-employers.aspx

 

[Milo]

The services for the disabled at airports are at best sketchy and minimal, from my personal experience. For one, you can only get a wheelchair if you can reach out your airline counter and request one. That defeats the purpose and sometimes you need to walk a long way to the counter.

Secondly the wheelchair attendants are scarce and often overwhelmed with work. The rules change from airport to airport, and you may or may not be able to stop to the washroom, to buy a drink or ready made food, or to fill your water bottle on the way to the gate. According to how healthy you look, you may be asked several times to walk from the gate to the plane, or from the plane to the gate (up the ramp)- due to the absence of wheelchair attendants and the cabin stewards wanting to move on with the boarding or to get to their hotel.

The service is essential, and welcomed when there is a long distance to the gate, and long line-ups in security. But there are many ways the services can be improved.

 

[rvallee]

The services for the disabled at airports are at best sketchy and minimal, from my personal experience. For one, you can only get a wheelchair if you can reach out your airline counter and request one. That defeats the purpose and sometimes you need to walk a long way to the counter.

Secondly the wheelchair attendants are scarce and often overwhelmed with work. The rules change from airport to airport, and you may or may not be able to stop to the washroom, to buy a drink or ready made food, or to fill your water bottle on the way to the gate. According to how healthy you look, you may be asked several times to walk from the gate to the plane, or from the plane to the gate (up the ramp)- due to the absence of wheelchair attendants and the cabin stewards wanting to move on with the boarding or to get to their hotel.

The service is essential, and welcomed when there is a long distance to the gate, and long line-ups in security. But there are many ways the services can be improved.

Seeing far too many similar stories lately. Of course you don't hear about all the ones who make it out fine but still, basic accessibility is still clearly a huge unsolved problem.

 

[Binkie4]

I can confirm that. I had my wheelchair destroyed on a flight from Newquay to Gatwick last August, totally destroyed.

The need to take the flight was unexpected. I travelled down by car as usual, with an overnight stop, but suffered from severe vertigo and lightheaded ness on arrival. Had to stay in bed/ on sofa totally for 2 weeks. I was really frightened for the first 2/3 days: it had never been as bad before and I wondered what was wrong. It’s ME, stupid! Son bought an air ticket realising I wouldn’t get back in the car, and booked disability.

Mr B took me to Newquay and handed me over to disability. So far so good. He drove on and I waited to be boarded. First time I had flown alone. I was wheeled to the plane door, got on, and my wheelchair taken for stowage. I stupidly didn’t ask where it would be stowed- I am used to longer flights where the wheelchair is stowed in the cabin, always. Their systems are much, much better. A helper, even when accompanied, which takes us to baggage and through immigration right to the taxis. It would be possible to travel alone.

At Gatwick, no wheelchair. No wheelchair on the carousel with luggage. I was instructed to walk!! I refused to move from the seat. Assertively. Eventually an airport wheelchair was brought, then my own which was broken into pieces.

No help from anyone. About a month ago Flybe sent a cheque for the replacement wheelchair that we had had to buy. I am glad I was able to be assertive and refuse to move or the consequences would have been worse- I’d have had to sit on the floor, or fall down.

Am going to have to repeat the journey both ways this summer but am trying to work out how to do it without stowing the wheelchair unless I can get confirmation that it can go in the cabin.

I agree with @Milo and @ukxmrv that unless you are accompanied, reaching the airline mobility system will be tricky. It’s usually a significant distance from taxi drop off to mobility assistance. I’m working on a plan for this summer- it’s going to be complicated but car travel has become more impossible so it needs to be air. My neck feels unstable and I feel nauseous.

 

[Alvin]

Can't read the link but i don't know if i would manage air travel today.,
In addition to no help sometimes i find movement that i am not in control of causes quick PEM. I can't explain it but it has happened to me several times, on the train, when someone else was driving a car. But not always.
Also i'm poor, can't afford food sometimes never mind travel.