I was born, July 5th 1965. I was diagnosed with Cerebral Palsy, which affects my arms, speech and balance, so I tend to use a wheelchair most of the time but can walk short distance with assistance. Ever since I can remember, I have been into custom cars, custom vans and motorcycles. After finishing school in 1982 near Stanford, I went to a training college in Lancaster for 2 years. One day in 1983, we had the chance to go to part of an Army base with a BSM driving instructor for half an hour. Of course, I jumped at the chance. I could handle the car very well, but I had problems with the steering so I was unable to take lessons. After I finished college in 1984, I returned home to Derby. Still wanting to drive, I applied for my provisional driving licence. At this time, the DVLA choose a local doctor to give you a medical to see if you were fit to drive. My father took me to a surgery on Charmwood Street, I got half way through the medical and I just knew the doctor was from the older generation and wasn’t going to allow a severely disabled person, in a wheelchair start driving. So I went away despondent. Not giving up, I attended the Rycote Day centre, on a weekly basis. The manager there, helped me arranged to meet Barry Tyson who rang the Derby Driving Assessment Centre. He assessed me for the adaptations that I would require but unfortunately, the price, with a vehicle, would have cost me around £30,000. At this point, I gave up thinking about driving. A few years later, I was involved in setting up the 15-25 year old PHAB (Physically Handicapped & Able Bodied.) Club with a Derbyshire County Council worker called Harry Dove. We got chatting about a few things and the cost of my vehicle came up, which Harry couldn’t believe, so Harry arranged for me to have another assessment with Barry Tyson now at the new premises within the Kingsway Hospital grounds but again, I was quoted £28,000+ to get me on the road. A few years passed, then one day I met up with a friend that I hadn’t seen since we were 5 years old. We got talking over the next few months and he gave me a telephone number of a driving instructor based in Chesterfield, Derbyshire. My Dad arranged to meet him between lessons with me. We met and he said I needed a foot steering system and gave us a number of a company in Batley, Yorkshire call K.C. Mobility. We arranged to go and meet David Knight who jointly owned K.C. Mobility at the time. David said he could get me driving but first of all, I needed to apply for my provisional driving licence. Unknown to me, DVLA had changed the medical system, instead of seeing a doctor of their choosing, you saw your own general practitioner, which I was still nervous about but did it anyway. A few weeks later, I had a reply from DVLA, saying they were granting me my provisional car licence to drive an adapted vehicle. We contacted David Knight straight away, to give him the good news. He suggested I buy either a Nissan Micra automatic or a Honda Accord automatic but spend no more than £2,000 on one, in case I wasn’t able to get on with driving. After a few months, we spotted a Honda Accord at Chatworths Honda in Derby. Dad rang them, but somebody had bought it that afternoon but wasn’t collecting it until the following day. Not having seen a Honda Accord, we went to take a look at it. While we were in the vicinity, we called in to the Nissan dealer to enquire about the Micra. The only had manual Micras in and they were out of my price range. They did offer me a mini, automatic but I just laughed and said, “Yeah, OK.” A month after, David Knight phoned up and said one of his customers was changing her car so was selling her Honda Accord, hatchback. I trusted David’s judgement so agreed on a price. David first fitted the foot steering system which was basically a turntable fitted on the floor connected to the steering column. We went up for a test. Unfortunately, this system didn’t really work at all for me. Even David tried it and agreed that it was too smaller space to use the system in the foot-well, both of us being 6ft+ tall and sized 9 boots. Lying around in the back of the workshop, there was an old foot steering system which was based on a bicycle pedal system, so David Knight fitted this and I went back up a few weeks later and after a few small alterations, I was able to steer the car. We fitted my indicators on to my headrest and for the time being all the secondary controls were done on a joystick which my Dad could control. David bought the car down to Derby for me and I found some insurance for £750. My Dad took me up to Asda in Chaddesden, after 7pm when it closed and let me drive round the car park a few nights, so I could get used to handling the car. After a couple of weeks, we went up to the Kingsway hospital, to the small driving test track. I got used to steering down a single track road and manoeuvring the car. After about 5 times of going there, my Dad had confidence in me to take me out onto the back roads. My confidence grew and my Dad was letting me drive from our house. At the time, one of the local Trike builders helped me design a steel frame around my driver’s seat to hold all the secondary switches for, starter, lights, wipers, etc. I was the Derby rep. for The National Handicapped Biker’s Association and they helped fund raise to get me an electric handbrake & gear shift. Meanwhile, I found an automatic Transit van for sale, in London, which was 18 months old. It had already been fitted with a Ricon wheelchair lift. I rang David Knight at K.C. Mobility and asked him about the van. He said it was a good buy, so I had to arranged a bank loan and buy it through T.C. Harrisons to enable to purchase it on Motabillity, which added another £1,000 to the price. Unfortunately, a couple of months after I got everything set up in my Honda for me to drive totally independently and start thinking about taking lessons with a driving school, my engine seized up, down at Milton Keynes, on route to a motorcycle rally weekend. A friend of my Dad’s located another Honda engine and we had it fitted but unfortunately, it never would start easily and run properly. At this time, I decided to take both vehicles up to K.C. Mobility and have the Transit put on the road for me to drive. David took this opportunity to fit the remote controlled rear doors & combine the lift into the remote control. Unfortunately this cost over £1,000 extra but David was kind enough to arrange payment over a few months. By this time, the Theory Test had been introduced. I bought a book from BSM and studied, I got friends and family to test me. I got something like 22 out of 24 questions, so I was quite happy. My Dad took me driving in the Transit so I could get used to the size difference from my car. After a few weeks, I got the specialist driving instructor from BSM came over to see me, from Mansfield, Nottinghamshire. Mr Burgess took me out for a hour. He said I’d need about 7 hours, just to polish up on a few things but it was the standard procedure for BSM to give everyone 10 hours tuition. I applied for a test date and when I got that for June 1997, I arranged to have my 10 hours over 5 days driving tuition. The day came, very wet. The hour prior to my test, I messed a couple of things up which must had been a good omen, because I past the test. I came home, had a cup of tea, then a hour after I’d passed my test, I drove to my Dad’s in Alvaston by myself, parked on the drive & pipped my horn. Dad walked out from the back, looked at me then saw that nobody was sat with me. A big smile came on his face and he came round to the driver’s side door and gave me a big hug.
Don’t let anybody say “It isn’t possible.” If you are determined, you will find a way to do what you want.