Help Harriet

With all the main building work now finished, we were now waiting for the outside steplift and overhead tracking hoist in Harriet`s bedroom to be installed .

We initially had a phone call from the steplift company, to say that they could fit the lift within a week, but there had been some problems on the bespoke build of the lift system and this had to be postponed for another couple of weeks.

When the lift people finally arrived, it felt like such a relief as we knew that we would no longer need to carry Harriet from the car into house, especially if she was sleeping. Harriet was also starting to get very heavy and it was a real strain carrying her safely.

As our other children started to return to school, we were now preparing for Harriet to take her first steps on the learning ladder .

Months of planning and preparation from health care professionals was needed to make this possible, as Harriet is a very complex little girl who has alot of medical needs .

We took Harriet this morning to the lighthouse nursery, who look after children that are disabled and have special needs .

Harriet joined the circle of friends at the nursery, while the teachers sung the “Hello” song to each of the five children individually . The teachers then started to try and establish what Harriet liked to do and introduced different types of switch toys .

As the morning progressed Harriet went into the sensory room and was introduced to an array of different types of sensory lighting .

At midday it was time for Harriet to come home, she seemed to enjoy the morning and will return to the nursery tomorrow morning for a few more hours .

Mum and Dad

It had been just over three months since the builders started Harriet`s new room and the building was now at a stage where it was virtually finished, we therefore asked the builder if it was possible to get the room passed.

Building control came out to Harriet`s new room and passed the building, which now meant that Harriet was able to move in her new room.

The builder explained to us that although the doors to Harriet`s bathroom and tracking hoists were not in place, that this would not affect Harriet or the carer living in the bedroom and using the disabled bathroom facilities.

Harriet`s room was designed to not only be functional for her needs but also take into account a sterile environment and we therefore decided that it was best to have a tiled floor in the bedroom, which would follow through from the main house .

On May 28^th 2011 the builders turned up with their digger and started the development on Harriet`s new room and the front drive.

There was very limited access to the rear of the property as the house had been extended in 2004 and the only access that would allow for machinery equipment, materials for trades personal to pass, was through our next door neighbours entry. We were very fortunate that we had a good relationship with our neighbour; she was extremely helpful and allowed materials to be delivered onto her front, machinery up the side of her house and allowed the work men to use her entry as main access point to our garden.

Initially when the builders looked at the access to the rear of the garden, they thought a digger would be out of the question given not only the narrow entry, but also the steep steps that the digger would need to climb up into our garden. The builders decided that they at least needed to try this option and given that they were using a small digger, to level off the front of the house for Harriet`s lift and driveway adaption this seemed a good time to try. After several attempts the digger was finally into the garden and the builders could start the footings for Harriet`s new room.

The builder started digging out the footings for Harriet`s room with the digger, this took just over three days and was timed just right for the building inspector to come and pass ready for the concrete.

On the 9th of June 2011 Matt Wadsley, Rich Beales, Fran Burton and Ady Riches set out to reach the 3 highest peaks in the UK, Ben Nevis in Scotland, Scafell Pike in England and Snowdon in Wales, one after the other.

They drove up to Fort William on the Wednesday so that they could start Ben Nevis climb first thing on the Thursday morning, the last fourty five minutes of this climb was done in the snow with next to no visibility.