As you can see from the slide show below, the children from Op d'n Esch in Eibergen thoroughly enjoyed there day with the Wheels in Motion Team.

Wheels in motion is a project that Matt set up in Eibergen, together with Eliza and the Eibergse Sport Federation. The Wheels in Motion Team visited schools and talked to kids about disability and the important roll of sport, and daily activity, for all, whether disabled or not.

To show the kids the daily obstacles facing disabled people, the Wheels in Motion Team organised disabled sports activities including wheelchair basket ball, goal ball and wheelchair sprint races.

Op d'n Esch was the last school to take part in the project. All the kids said how much they had enjoyed the day but each and everyone said that they wouldn't want to sit in a wheelchair all their lives!

Many thanks goes to Eliza and the Eibergse Sport Federation for helping Matt to organise the Project which was a great success.

I was recently asked whether I had ever had decubitus and my initial reply was no, but on careful thought I had to answer yes. Oh, by the way, for any of you that don't know, decubitus is the medical term for bedsores and some of us with spinal cord injuries are very sensitive for sores, me being one of them. So back to the point, about a year and a half ago now, one of the doctors that was treating me for spasms in my legs, accidently dropped my legs after injecting alcohol into the back of my knees and the heels of my feet hit the hard medical examination table, I was lying on, really hard and this caused some very bad bruising which subsequently, after about a month and a half, turned into nasty gaping sores on both heels.

Well the damage was done, it was too late for prevention. My normal preventative measures are the same as most others, sheepskin under my heels at night and under the base of my back when I'm horizontal on the sofa. I was concerned, it was the first time I had had fully blown bed sores and after a couple of weeks treating the sores with water peroxide, I went to the Doctor for advise. The Doctor gave me some ointment to put on the sores and I was on my way, or so I thought, but after a couple of weeks more and regular use of the oinment, the sores weren't going away, if anything they were getting worse!

This was now starting to really worry me and the thought of going in to hospital didn't appeal to me at all. What should I do? was there anything I could do?... Then my girlfriend told me one night that she had read on the internet about some stuff called manuka honey, I had never heard of it and couldn't really see the connection but then she explained that I didn't need to eat it but use it as an ointment on the wounds.

What did I have to loose? Other than the fact that this stuff wasn't cheap, I couldn't see any reason not to try it so we ordered a pot over the internet. When it arrived we were amazed at the size of the pot, it was tiny seeing as we had paid a small fortune for it, but nevertheless we were intrigued to find out more and more to the point, would it cure the gaping holes in my heels. Being experimental from nature, I suggested to Lou that we tried it on one heel and kept treating the other with the ointment from the Doctor. To my amazement, after about three weeks, the hole in my right heel which we had treated with manuka honey was nearly gone and the hole in my left heel was still open so we started treating the hole in my left heel with manuka honey too and sure enough it disappeared.

I am not saying that manuka honeyis a cure all or even the answer to bed sores, but anything is better than a hospital bed. I would like to say a big thankyou to all you bees out there that are producing manuka honey.

Get ready to mark your calendars again! Matt, Lou, Libby and Jim will take to the road once more! Not content to rest on the laurels of success of last year's Ride for Research, they will embark on a bigger and braver adventure in the summer of 2008. Their 'driving' ambition, along with the encouragement and help of www.stepnow.org and its members, has given birth to a unique and exciting undertaking - a Ride for Research 2008, from Amsterdam to Zagreb - let's call it the A to Z of riding for spinal cord research. Whatever is out there along the way, they will cover the a to z of it you can be sure!

The plan is that late in June of 2008 Matt and his steadfast team will start out from the Vondel Park in Amsterdam heading southeast through the Netherlands, over the border into Germany. They will continue down through the german countryside, leaving the flatlands of home behind them, passing through Bavaria to reach the Austrian border. On through Austria and a most arduous stretch of mountainous and breathtaking scenery they will reach the northern part of Italy and begin to roll down the hills until they arrive in Venice. From there they will skirt the Adriatic coast moving into Slovenia and beyond into Croatia where their final destination (estimated to be the end of August) will be the city of Zagreb. A welcoming party will greet them with open arms!

All this is undertaken to raise awareness of the need for support of spinal cord research on every level - but most importantly from governments and legislators. The science for a cure for paralysis within the fields of stem cell research and regenerative medicine is moving at a promising pace, but without continued and significant funds there is a real danger that valuable projects will not survive. Matt and everyone at stepnow want to make sure that doesn't happen. Our cure depends on all of us being active in keeping that scientific progress alive.

The clock is ticking and preparations for the Ride for Research 2008 have already begun......
If you wish to find out more, or to take part, help in any way, please visit the  Stepnowride website - we'd love to see you there!

Stand Together to End Paralysis - Now!
www.stepnowride.org

Well I have been pretty quiet recently when it comes to updating Invanet but that's because I have been busy with other projects. One of these is a website for Amputees that I have been making for The UMC St Radboud Amputee Team which is led by Dr Henk van de Meent, a rehabilitation specialist and an expert in his field.

The amputee.nl website has information for amputees and about amputees and amputation.

Amputee.nl covers areas such as:

• The UMC Amputee Team's amputee rehabilitation plan
• How phantom pain effects lower limb amputees
• The effects of limb loss after amputation
• Stump and skin problems incured by amputees after amputation
• Helpful tips for amputees
• Amputee sport
• A study of sexual function in adult amputees
• Insurance, legacy and other prerequisites that effect amputees
• Socket and prosthetic components designed for amputees
• Prosthesis alignment
• Frequently used technical terms used when refering to amputees and amputation
• A list of amputee sites from around the world.

Download your very own version of The Healing by Stephen.F.Caldwell from the Invanet Ebook download page.

Stephen.F.Caldwell had this to say about The Healing

In 1977, 14 years after I was paralyzed in a car accident, I was invited by one of my dearest friends to a séance. I did not even believe in my own disbelief, so had no objection. At the séance a spirit doctor told me he had operated on my spinal cord and that I would be out of my wheelchair in 90 days.

THE HEALING is about those 90 days and is the first ebook to be offered on Matt's INVANET site. Here and there is a word that wasn't said and perhaps an event that didn't happen quite that way; it is a novel, not a memoir. But it is perilously close to reportage. At least for now, it is free, though that may change. At this point, we're experimenting. I hope in the fall Matt will offer another book, LOVE NOTE, which I'm now serializing at Apparelyzed and on the General Spinal Injury Discussion Message Board; both are sites run by and for persons with spinal-cord damage and  persons who care about them.

Feedback and thoughts about the book

You can leave your thoughts and feedback about The Healing either here or in the forums. To talk with Steve I suggest that you log into the forums and you will find the latest from Steve in the ebook forum.

I have been discussing the idea of putting up spinal cord injury ebooks for download. The idea was born when I read an amazing book written by Stephen Caldwell a spinal cord injury sufferer living in the states. The book was called the healing and it's descriptive and a must read book. Stephen is also releasing a follow up called Love Note which is possibly even better than the first, it's a matter of taste.

Stephen Caldwell's descriptive writing style

When I read the books I found myself, for probably the first time in my life, totally engaged by Stephen's descriptive manner of writing. The main role is Stephen himself and some of the thoughts and feelings he describes had me so wrapped in the book I even started to become the charachter.

Sex, drugs and paralysis

Like I say, this was probably the first time I have ever been so engaged in a book and I think it's because Stephen describes some of the feelings of paralysis extremly well and takes you into the world of love, sex, drugs, paralysis, divorce, marriage, frustration, you name it he takes you there.

Ebooks for download

I was so taken by the books that I have contacted Stephen to ask if I can offer the book on Invanet as a downloadable Ebook. I don't know for sure but I have googled Ebooks and spinal cord injury and don't seem to be able to find any by spinal cord injury sufferers, I may be wrong but if I'm not it could be the first Ebook of it's kind. If I am wrong on that let me know.

Limited edition

If Stephen gives me the all clear to publish The Healing as an Ebook I will be offering it as a limited edition. So keep your eyes open and if and when it becomes available I will let you all know.

Door het ongeluk was ik in een paar dagen tijd volwasen geworden - maar wel op een heel andere manier dan ik vooraf had gedacht.

Sandra Maatkamp-Spexgoor(35) liep op haar zeventiende een dwarslaesie op bij een brommerongeluk. Sindsdien zit ze in een rolstoel. Wie denkt dat ze bij de pakken neer is gaan zitten, heeft het mis. Daar heeft Sandra ook helemaal geen tijd voor met een man (Ed), twee kinderen (Kris - 4 en Roel - 2) en een leuke baan. "Geloof me, er is leven na een dwarslaesie, kijk maar naar mij!"

Sandra Maatkamp: 'Zondag 5 februari 1989. Die datum zit in mijn geheugen gegrift. Het is de dag waarop ik het ongeluk kreeg en ophield met lopen. Ik herinner me het nog heel goed. Met een geleende brommer raakte ik van de weg en reed ik tegen een ...

Voor het volledige artikel moet je de Vrouw in de Regio magazine kopen. (Jaargang 1 - nummer 4 / april - mei 2006)

Eventuele reacties:

Interview: Jolanda Hofland, Fotographie: Ria Lusink

Visagie: Happy 100, Kleding: Focus/Ruurlo

During rehab I spent a lot of time thinking about how it would be on the outside world. I thought about how it would be seeing the world from a wheelchair and often wondered how easy it would be for someone as me to be reduced to life on four wheels.

I have always been a very active man and it scared me when I thought of all the things I wouldn't be able to do so rather than worry about what I wouldn't be able to do I started focusing on all the things I would be able to do.

Now and again I found inspiration from other spinal cord injury sufferers that go out and achieve the seemingly impossible. One of those people was a Canadian who climbed Mount Fuji on his handbike, he had a support team who walked along side him all the way to the top.

Inspired by the story I started scetching and ended up with a pencil doodle of a mad spinally cord injured figure zooming down the road in his wheelchair with the wind blowing in his hair.

When I got home I forgot about my doodles and after about a year I found them again tucked away in the cupboard. On finding them back I decided to do a bit of digital remastering on my trusty desktop and this is one of the end results.

I called the picture "Freewheeling Frank on his Titanium Horse". I remember thinking that when I got out I would make every effort to not let the wheelchair rule my life but instead I would rule the wheelchair and I am pleased to tell you that I have mastered the wheelchair and it doesn't rule my life, no instead I rule the wheelchair. The only things that get in my way now are the daily obstacles that get in the way of all wheelchair users but lets hope that with time and a little education the society at whole changes and that we are all offered equal chances in life and as many obstacles as possible can be avoided.

One of the other things that we were asked if we wanted to do during rehab was "creativity". I wasn't sure what I was supposed to expect from creativety so I decided to go on down to have a look. I was pleased to find all the paint, pencils, paper, clay, you name it was there and I was told that I could do what ever I wanted and given the instruction to use my imagination.

When they said to me "just use your imagination" I did and decided I would start making clay models and try to model some of the nurses on the Rehab ward and here they are. If any of the nurses that I modeled these on read this, please don't take offence because it isn't meant personally against any of you, I think you all do a great job and thanks to all of you for getting me ready for life on the outside.

If anyone else has got any doodles that they made in Rehab and they want to post them here then please email them to me and I will add them to the post. I am presently busy remastering a couple of the other pencil drawings that I made and as soon as they are ready I will add those too.

Casa Vernon Bed and Breakfast belongs to my closest friend, Chris Vernon, and back in November last year Chris and his wife Monica invited me down to Italy for a ten day holiday, to catch up on old times and to take a look at their beautiful new home/bed and breakfast near Salerno in Southern Italy. I was chuffed with the invite because I needed the break and more importantly I hadn't seen Chris for about 14 1/2 years and I had never met Monica.

Well I decided that I was going to go on my own because it would have been too expensive for all of us as a family and I also fancied the challenge of travelling alone. After having booked a flight and arranged for a pick up at the airport with Chris, I started to think about what I would need for the journey. So I made a list and it looked something like this:

1. Passport and Ticket (first on the list after last time)
2. Three changes of clothes (one to wear, one to change into and one for emergencies)
3. One pair shoes (the only pair I own, paralysed people go along way on one pair of shoes)
4. Plenty of clean underpants
5. Pills (40 neurotine, 30 vitamine C, 40 cranactine)
6. 10 Suppositories (one a day)
7. 30 latex gloves
8. 35 throw away towels
9. 85 catheters (60 for normal use and 25 extra in case of a few boys' nights out)
10. 50 urine bags (I can reuse some and do my bit for recycling, I must be turning green)
11. Present for Chris and Monica

After having made the list I got my bag out of the cupboard and started packing. I got down to number 7 on the list and was more than happy with my progress and pleased to see that there was still room left in my bag. I was so happy in actual fact, I left my bag on the bed and headed into the kitchen for a celebratory cup of tea. I had a chat with Lou and we talked about my trip down to Italy and I ensured her I would be OK and she didn't need to worry and she ensured me that the kids would be OK. After my tea I returned to the bedroom and started packing the last three bits on the list and that's when it hit me: 

how on earth am I going to get 35 padded towels, 85 catheters and 50 urine bags into there and how on earth am I ever going to carry a bag bigger than that?, I am going to struggle with that as it is. I know, it's a question of elimination.

After due consideration I had to make the decision that Chris and Monica's present would have to stay because I just couldn't have got it in.

In case you were wondering what it was Chris, here it is. I made it myself from a piece of oak that I found at the tip (I really am turning green), I hope you like it. Next time I come down to see the two of you I will bring it on down. As you can see it was a good job that it didn't fit in the bag because it gives me the chance to do some more sanding and put some lacquer on it for a better finish.

After making my decisions and finally squeezing everything into my sports bag, I had a good nights sleep and was ready to leave at 9.00 the next day.

I booked into the plane and gave Lou and the kids a kiss goodbye. After having being frisked at customs I headed down to the departure gate. On arrival at the gate there was a ten minute weight before our flight was called and I headed down to the plane.

On arriving at the plane I was manhandelled, by two stewards, out of my wheelchair and into what they refered to as a courtesy wheelchair. Take it from me they really shouldn't call it a courtesy wheelchair they would be better off refering to them as plank of wood on rollers, it was as hard as nails and to top the lot they left the safety buckle on the back of the chair which gave me a nasty bruise on my back that lasted for days. Anyway, they got me onboard and before I knew it I was winging my way to Naples and would soon be in Salerno singing The Boys are Back in Town.

When we landed I had to wait until the rest of the passengers had disembarked before I was presented with my very own wheelchair and gently helped in by a friendly Italian airport steward. He then proceeded to push me out of the plane and into a scissor action lift that had come along side the plane door. The steward then took me through to the airport exit and there I was in Italy and just about to see my oldest friend...

Well a quick rundown of todays' events.

I went down the gym this morning for an hours workout on my own, Louise couldn't come down with me because she had one or two things to do at home. I had a good workout on the dumbells and stayed clear of the inverted rowing machine seeing as I got stuck on it last time I tried to use it on my own. I saw Frank my trainer down there who was training a newcomer and we had a quick chat. Other than that it was a quiet session but it felt good and I can feel that the training is starting to pay off.

When I got home Lou told me that she had uploaded some of our recent pictures on to the laptop so I can start uploading them to the website. This one was taken at the gym whilst I was bench pressing. It's one of those exercises that I can get on and off safely myself, so no problems on that front.

This afternoon I had a meeting with John Willemsen. John works at the Eibergen/Borculose Sports Federatie. We talked about setting up a project called Class on Wheels in which we hope to go into schools and local businesses and introduce people to disability sport.

What we thought would be good idea was to give adults and kids the chance to experience what it is to sit in a wheelchair and to try some disability sports themselves. The types of sport that we had in mind were wheelchair hockey, perhaps wheelchair rugby, wheelchair basketball. We also plan to go a little way into the local community to show them some of the day to day obstacles facing a wheelchair dependant person. It would also be good to have either another spinally injured person along with me to help out or perhaps someone with another disability to explain disability from another view point.

If anyone reading this has set something like this up before or wants to get involved, I would be pleased to hear from you. You can leave comments at the bottom of the post and I will get to them in due time or you can leave a message for me using the form on the contact page.

On arriving home I decided to go out for a ride on my hand bike. After fighting my way into the back of the cupboard to get my thick trousers out, I rolled over to bed and wormed my way into my thermal leggings and eventually my trousers. I got my bike out of the shed, saddled up and was ready for the off. Just as I wheeled out into the back garden the biggest, blackest rain cloud came over the top of the neighbours roof and opened up right on top of me. Soaked to the skin, I got off my bike and went back inside to worm my way back out of my trousers and long johns and I am now sitting behind the laptop trying to warm myself up with a bit of tea and some blogging.

Well I'm going to leave this blog for now 'cause I've got to get the dinner ready. I'll put some more of my thoughts down later on.

Well it's Sunday 26th March, the clocks have gone forward and the first signs of spring have arrived, the cat is molting, there are flies in our kitchen, I got bitten by a mosquito and Libby saw a wasp. On the upside, we have just heard on the news that it's going to be sixteen degrees tomorrow, I've got the house to myself and I just noticed that there's a lonely beer at the back of the fridge so roll on summer.

Friday 24th: I trained in the morning and went to Thea Ammerlaan in the afternoon. Thea is an acupuncturist with years of experience and she is one of the Ride for Research sponsors and treats me with acupuncture once a week.

Last week Thea treated me with acupuncture in the legs and back which she said would improve bladder and kidney function. I was amazed to find that my incontinency I have been suffering from got better and I have had ten completely dry days.

This week Thea has give me some acupuncture in the shoulders and forearms which should improve shoulder movement and upper body flow so I will keep you posted on the results.