Tower and Town, August 2017 (view the full edition)When Walking Is DifficultFor most of my life I thoroughly enjoyed walking. I was brought up in a walking family and holidays in Scotland and Cornwall were mostly spent on our feet. Later with our own family we walked in Cornwall and North Wales; we must have climbed Snowdon at least ten times! After moving to Marlborough we used to explore the Ridgeway and other local footpaths on summer evenings and I walked from home to work at the College every day. We had always enjoyed holidays at home and abroad and we walked around the cities and the countryside whenever possible. However, it was when walking at the Victoria Falls when disaster struck. I seized up completely and my husband, Peter, managed to get me back to the hotel and, by putting the airconditioning to its coldest setting, got me moving again. We had known that my walking was getting difficult and so when we came home I had many tests and multiple sclerosis was diagnosed. This happened when I was about sixty years old and just before Peter retired. We had been planning an expedition on the Southwest Coastal Path but obviously this was not possible as I could only walk very slowly, eventually using one stick, then two and later electric buggies when walking finally became impossible. However, although my 'walking' now has to be in a wheelchair, this has given me a completely different view of the environment. Marlborough has steep slopes and many steps that I had never noticed before; buildings are difficult to enter and to manoeuvre once inside is well nigh impossible. The pavements are some of the worst in the world and even the Town Hall is certainly not wheelchair-friendly. Nevertheless, we still manage to get around the town for all our needs. Further afield we have thrown the wheelchair onto aeroplanes and ships and have visited many parts of this wonderful world. On these trips we have had nothing but kindness and offers of help from all races, creeds and colours. This restores our faith in human nature and we feel that we are 'walking' with them wherever we are. Our family still walk regularly and seven of our direct descendants and some of their friends recently completed the 26.2 mile Moonwalk around London. P.S. I was recently at a friend's house and her three-year-old walked up and looked at me very seriously and said "I am only three and I have learnt to walk" We all fell about laughing! Gill Morgan |