Chair that’s built to take on world

Carl Brunning was paralysed in a climbing accident but he has never let it slow him down. Catherine Scott reports.
Carl BrunningCarl Brunning
Carl Brunning

SINCE becoming a paraplegic following a mountain climbing accident nearly 30 years ago, Carl Brunning has travelled the world.

He has never let his disability rule his life – far from it. From his wheelchair the 49-year-old has pushed himself to the limit and now spends half the year in Australia scuba diving and sailing.

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Carl, from North Ferriby, East Yorkshire, was employed as a navigating officer with British merchant naval company, P&O, from the age of 16, before a mountain climbing accident in 1985 changed his life forever. Aged 21, Carl fell 130 feet, severed his spine in the accident and was airlifted to Hexham Spinal Unit, where he spent a year recovering.

Carl spent the next two years adjusting to life as a paraplegic, and struggling to adapt to being confined to a heavy, unwieldy chrome-plated NHS issue wheelchair.

But the accident made Carl vow that he would live life to the fullest.

After getting involved in Disability Sport UK, Carl began doing wheelchair marathons and scuba diving and in the six years after his accident, he went through up to 40 wheelchairs, as the poor build quality couldn’t withstand his active lifestyle.

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In the early 90s however, the Government issued a new policy where it would pay 50 per cent towards any wheelchair, which was chosen with the support and guidance of a physiotherapist.

For the first time, Carl was able to have a wheelchair which suited his lifestyle, needs and ability, and he chose a light aluminium chair from a mobility equipment supplier in Driffield, East Yorkshire.

The lighter chair gave Carl the confidence to hit the road and travel the world. He left the UK in 1991 for a year-long back-packing holiday, which saw him spend six months driving around every state in the US, starting in New York and finishing in Los Angeles. Travelling became a lifestyle for Carl, and he then spent the next ten years visiting places including Hawaii, Fiji, the Cook Islands, New Zealand and Australia, where he stayed for two years. Carl also took on a bungee jump in New Zealand and has now completed 40 marathons.

Carl found his lighter chair much more functional, though he was keen to have an all-round wheelchair which he could use for his home life, social life and active pursuits.

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Carl was then introduced to the Joker Energy wheelchair by East Yorkshire-based Cyclone Technologies’ managing director, Dave Hawkins, himself paraplegic since the 1980s.

“I’d known Dave from Cyclone for a while socially, and I was very happy to try out the Joker wheelchair when he recommended it to me,” says Carl, who has been very impressed with the chair, which weighs just 5kgs, making it much easier to manouvre.

“The Joker Energy chair has opened up a whole new world to me, and given me the strength and courage to literally do anything,” continues Carl.

“It works incredibly well on the beach, which is very important as I spend six months of the year in Australia, doing scuba diving, sailing and a range of other active and upcoming paraplegic sports, and it’s brilliant off-road too. It helps me to really live life to the full.”

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Dave Hawkins, whose company, Cyclone Technologies, is behind the ReWalk “bionic” suit, said: “The Joker has helped Carl to truly take on the world and get involved in anything he wants to do, in spite of his injury.

“It’s a real pleasure to have fitted him with a wheelchair which allows him to pursue the active life he enjoys so much, and we always look forward to seeing him take on his next challenge.”

Cyclone hit the headlines after paralysed Claire Lomas completed the London Marathon in the company’s ReWalk suit, a robotic exoskeleton.

“I am proud of anyone in a wheelchair who goes out and does something people said they couldn’t do,” says Carl.

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“When someone challenges that and says ‘just watch me’, it is great.

“I wouldn’t have been able to do half the things I have done if it wasn’t for forward-thinking people who took risks to do something different.”

Technology to change lives

Cyclone Technologies are leading suppliers of bespoke, lightweight wheelchairs and is the UK’s foremost rehabilitation and training specialist.

The East Yorkshire based company offers a full range of treatments, services and products from Functional Electrical Stimulation therapy and equipment 
and Far Infrared Heat Therapy, to ReWalk 
training and systems and multi-gyms.

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With an expert team boasting 120 years’ combined experience of life in a wheelchair, Cyclone’s main objective is to transform the lives of disabled people across the UK by maximising our customers’ range of movement, fitness levels and general health, and helping them to regain a new level of independence and control in their everyday lives.

www.cyclonemobility.com