Monday 27 August 2007

Wheels on Fire : Mayor Bailey visits the Dragon's Lair

One of the sponsors of TW2B Cambridge 2007 is local engineering firm Dragonmobility, and the Mayor of Cambridge, who is herself an engineer, went along to see how they make their distinctive brand of life-changing wheelchairs in a small workshop behind the Aldi carpark on Histon Road.

Dragon wheelchairs are a unique combination of physics and psychology. It seems to be as important to identify the right person and the right family as it is to engineer the individual seating and steering mechanism.


Young Irving is a good example of this, and he met Mayor Jenny Bailey during her visit, demonstrating the freedom that a Dragon chair can give to a child with disabilities, even if that includes the freedom to make mistakes as well as friends, have accidents as well as have fun!

Ruth Everard, is another example, although in her case the technology that gave a her the chance to be defiant at storytime in Trumpington playgroup when she was four has since then enabled her to get a law degree from Oxford and a high-flying job as a solicitor in Canary Wharf.