Debbie's inspiring fight to make the Yorkshire Dales accessible to all

A former headteacher and her husband have set in motion a highly successful campaign to improve the ways disabled people can access the beauty of the Yorkshire Dales. Chris Burn reports.
Debbie North who is campaigning for more disabled people to be able to enjoy the beauty of the Yorkshire Dales through the use of special all-terrain wheelchairs. pictured at Malham Tarn, where Debbie has helped fundraise for an all-terrain wheelchair to be in place at the National Trust property. 10 July 2017.  Picture Bruce RollinsonDebbie North who is campaigning for more disabled people to be able to enjoy the beauty of the Yorkshire Dales through the use of special all-terrain wheelchairs. pictured at Malham Tarn, where Debbie has helped fundraise for an all-terrain wheelchair to be in place at the National Trust property. 10 July 2017.  Picture Bruce Rollinson
Debbie North who is campaigning for more disabled people to be able to enjoy the beauty of the Yorkshire Dales through the use of special all-terrain wheelchairs. pictured at Malham Tarn, where Debbie has helped fundraise for an all-terrain wheelchair to be in place at the National Trust property. 10 July 2017. Picture Bruce Rollinson

As she lay on what she feared would be her death bed in hospital, Debbie North sent her husband Andy a Christmas card with what she thought was a very optimistic request.

Struck down with severe pneumonia after an incredibly difficult few years when spinal degeneration had left the once highly active headteacher disabled and reliant on a wheelchair, Debbie asked if they next year they could do the 192-mile Coast to Coast walk through the Lake District, Yorkshire Dales and North York Moors the following year together.

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“I thought my card was marked,” says Debbie, explaining that she had been put on a ward where several other patients had passed away. “I sent Andy a card saying ‘Next year can we do the Coast to Coast walk with the wheelchair?’ He sent one back saying yes, but knowing it was never going to happen because I wasn’t going to be here this time next year. However, I made a recovery and I am here to tell the tale.”

Debbie North and Julia BradburyDebbie North and Julia Bradbury
Debbie North and Julia Bradbury

Not only did she recover, but quite incredibly Debbie and Andy did manage to complete the Coast to Coast walk little more than a year later, raising thousands for charity and writing a book about their endeavours. But that extraordinary effort is just one of the staging posts on the incredible journey the couple have been on in the past nine years.

Now living in the village of Nateby on the Cumbria-Yorkshire border, the two former teachers are now dedicating much of their time to improving disabled access to walking routes in the Yorkshire Dales and the rest of the country.

Back in 2008, Debbie, who is now 55 and originally from Sheffield, was working as a headteacher at a primary school in Lincolnshire when she started suffering with back pain that became increasingly worse. Andy, who hails from Batley and is now 51, says: “We thought Debs had trapped a nerve. She phoned up after the MRI scan and said ‘I have got the skeleton of an 80-year-old’.”

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Debbie ended up requiring the use of a wheelchair. The couple’s relationship had developed through their shared love of walking and Debbie found it difficult to cope without her hobby, especially after being given ill-health retirement from work.

Debbie North who is campaigning for more disabled people to be able to enjoy the beauty of the Yorkshire Dales through the use of special all-terrain wheelchairs. pictured at Malham Tarn, where Debbie has helped fundraise for an all-terrain wheelchair to be in place at the National Trust property.
10 July 2017.  Picture Bruce RollinsonDebbie North who is campaigning for more disabled people to be able to enjoy the beauty of the Yorkshire Dales through the use of special all-terrain wheelchairs. pictured at Malham Tarn, where Debbie has helped fundraise for an all-terrain wheelchair to be in place at the National Trust property.
10 July 2017.  Picture Bruce Rollinson
Debbie North who is campaigning for more disabled people to be able to enjoy the beauty of the Yorkshire Dales through the use of special all-terrain wheelchairs. pictured at Malham Tarn, where Debbie has helped fundraise for an all-terrain wheelchair to be in place at the National Trust property. 10 July 2017. Picture Bruce Rollinson

She says: “We came up to the Yorkshire Dales for a holiday. I remember we were sat in the car park and I could see people pulling on their hiking boots and setting off. It was so hard to know I couldn’t do it. It was a horrible, horrible feeling – other people doing something that had been taken away from me. In February 2011, I was given ill-health retirement. That was a double blow – my passion for walking had been taken away from me and I absolutely loved my job. I got to the point of thinking ‘What is the purpose of my existence? I can’t earn a living and I can’t spend this time I now have on my hobby.’ I couldn’t do what I wanted to do.”

But instead of being beaten by circumstances, Debbie decided to start a blog called Access The Dales to inspire herself to find out more about how disabled people could make the most of the Yorkshire Dales.

After tracking down a specialist mobility scooter and with assistance of local rambling expert Jonathan Smith, Debbie and Andy soon headed out on their first walk in several years, going to Gordale Scar, near Malham in North Yorkshire. Andy and Jonathan kicked stones out of the way as Debbie made her way along. She says: “It was the simplest of walks but for us it was like an expedition.”

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Debbie had spinal surgery in 2013 which now means she can walk around her house with the aid of crutches rather than being solely reliant on a wheelchair. But six weeks after the surgery the couple were in a car crash and then Debbie developed severe pneumonia the couple feared was life-threatening.

Debbie North who is campaigning for more disabled people to be able to enjoy the beauty of the Yorkshire Dales through the use of special all-terrain wheelchairs. pictured at Malham Tarn, where Debbie has helped fundraise for an all-terrain wheelchair to be in place at the National Trust property.
10 July 2017.  Picture Bruce RollinsonDebbie North who is campaigning for more disabled people to be able to enjoy the beauty of the Yorkshire Dales through the use of special all-terrain wheelchairs. pictured at Malham Tarn, where Debbie has helped fundraise for an all-terrain wheelchair to be in place at the National Trust property.
10 July 2017.  Picture Bruce Rollinson
Debbie North who is campaigning for more disabled people to be able to enjoy the beauty of the Yorkshire Dales through the use of special all-terrain wheelchairs. pictured at Malham Tarn, where Debbie has helped fundraise for an all-terrain wheelchair to be in place at the National Trust property. 10 July 2017. Picture Bruce Rollinson

After her recovery, the pair set out on their Coast to Coast challenge in 2015, completing the challenge in 13 days. Their walk was covered by BBC Radio Lincolnshire – with one interview being particularly memorable. Debbie says: “We were going over the North York Moors and this goose came running across the field and starting attacking me on live radio. I told the presenter ‘I’m being attacked by a goose’. Then this man and his dog walked past and the dog cocked his leg up and started weeing on the wheelchair. It was just pandemonium! I said goodbye to the presenter and his sound engineer was shaking with laughter.”

The walk finished in emotional circumstances at Robin Hood’s Bay, with friends and family waiting to greet them. Debbie says: “It was just amazing, it was just thrilling to think – we did it! Making the inaccessible accessible is our motto and we did it.”

The challenge saw them raise £6,500 for the Calvert Trust, a charity that helps disabled people to enjoy outdoor activities. It also led to them writing a book about their experiences called In the Spirit of Wainwright, named after Alfred Wainwright, who devised the trek in the 1970s.

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The walk also led them into contact with former Countryfile presenter Julia Bradbury when Debbie asked her for help with fundraising – and eventually resulted in an unexpected new avenue for helping disabled people make the most of the countryside. Bradbury asked for Debbie and Andy’s help with her ‘The Outdoor Guide’ project. For the past year, the couple have been accompanying Bradbury on different walks around the country to check how accessible they are for disabled people.

Debbie North who is campaigning for more disabled people to be able to enjoy the beauty of the Yorkshire Dales through the use of special all-terrain wheelchairs. pictured at Malham Tarn, where Debbie has helped fundraise for an all-terrain wheelchair to be in place at the National Trust property.
10 July 2017.  Picture Bruce RollinsonDebbie North who is campaigning for more disabled people to be able to enjoy the beauty of the Yorkshire Dales through the use of special all-terrain wheelchairs. pictured at Malham Tarn, where Debbie has helped fundraise for an all-terrain wheelchair to be in place at the National Trust property.
10 July 2017.  Picture Bruce Rollinson
Debbie North who is campaigning for more disabled people to be able to enjoy the beauty of the Yorkshire Dales through the use of special all-terrain wheelchairs. pictured at Malham Tarn, where Debbie has helped fundraise for an all-terrain wheelchair to be in place at the National Trust property. 10 July 2017. Picture Bruce Rollinson

The busy couple have not stopped there. Debbie is on the Local Access Forum for the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority and also secured the arrival of a Tramper wheelchair at the National Trust’s Malham Tarn estate.

They also have a second book coming out after completing another long-distance walk between the Semerwater lake in the Yorkshire Dales and Bassenthwaite Lake in the Lake District. Andy says he will always remember battling through appalling weather in the Howgill Fells. “You could barely see your hands in front of your face. The sense of achievement when we finished was just brilliant. It was just one of those moments where everybody sticks together even though it is a bit dark at times. They are the days you look back on.”

Andy says it is something of a metaphor for what the couple have been through. “It is that real sense of achievement you get when you overcome something. Whatever doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. We have been in some predicaments but come through.”

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Debbie says the Invictus and Paralympic Games have had a big impact on perceptions of disability and hopes her own efforts can also play a part in improving lives. “You don’t have to give up, if you are in a wheelchair there are ways and means around it. If we are able to just contribute a small part to getting people motivated, then that is great.”

‘An uplifting spirit’

Julia Bradbury says Debbie’s response to her circumstances have been an inspiration.

Debbie North and Julia BradburyDebbie North and Julia Bradbury
Debbie North and Julia Bradbury

Bradbury says: “As I say in the foreword of Debbie’s book, spirit is a good word alongside gumption and pluck for her.

“We feel blessed that this spirited individual has come in to our lives and is an integral part to Access The Outdoor Guide in helping to spread the word about what is out there for those with mobility issues. Her humour, candour and love of live should uplift anyone’s spirit. This is clearly demonstrated in her book which I was proud to contribute to.”

For more of Debbie’s walks on wheels on AccessTOG or to buy a personalised copy of her book In The Spirit of Wainwright, visit www.theoutdoorguide.co.uk.