SNN_December_2023

SPINAL NETWORK NEWS 23
—Catriona Williams
It is a $450,000 vehicle,
and it is pretty schmick—I
make no apologies for that.
COVID-19 hit and we spent lockdown doing a lot of
research, gathering some intel from Tiff Perry and her
husband, Chris, and also Craig Vincent, and other
wheelies, just to get a perspective on the different levels of
wheelies, and what they needed, bathroom layout, and
those sorts of things.
A friend who was visiting a yacht and campervan show in
Auckland phoned me to say ‘Oh, my gosh there was the
most beautiful, accessible campervan there’. I reached out
and got in touch with the Director of ACM Motorhomes,
Chris Cunard, to see if he wanted to be involved.
He said, ‘I'd be delighted and I’ll build it for you’. So I
phoned Alyssa back to tell her that Chris loved the
proposal. She replied, “Oh, my goodness. We have got to
go for it”. After a number of conversations Chris said it's
going to cost between $350k to $400k and agreed to put in
$50k of labour and time.
It is a $450,000 vehicle, and it is pretty schmick—I make
no apologies for that, because I think we're all short on
holidays. When we do take one, we want it to be special.
Between Chris Cunard, who is Auckland based, myself,
and other wheelies, we've created a vehicle for all
wheelies. People with cerebral palsy, MS, SCI, elderly…
whatever the need, a big enough bathroom, and your
wheelchair can be wheeled up front and tied down—like a
wheelchair taxi.
If you are a para and can transfer—or if you’re a tetra and
can transfer—hand controls are available, able-bodied
people will be able to drive it as well.
The campervan has also got a couch and at the press of a
button, it folds out into a ready-made bed. There are cool
features throughout this van that people will really enjoy.
It's still going to be the van that you need to travel with an
able-bodied buddy, but it will be set up for wheelie needs
rather than just able bodied needs.
How does it work in terms of renting Charly?
We're proud that Milner Mobility will manage the hiring
of it. So, it can be hired from Auckland or from
Christchurch, and that they will take 40 percent of the
rental rate but the other 60 percent gets split between the
CatWalk SCI Trust and NZ Spinal Trust.
An important part of the story are the people who got it
off the ground—our Awesome Foursome. I put a footnote
in the CatWalk magazine—‘We are aiming to build a
wheelie campervan, if you're interested in supporting,
please get in touch’.
The day that magazine was sent out I got a text from Scott
Malcolm (Greenstone partners) who is the ex-Chair of
CatWalk to say what do you need? I said, I'm looking for
four people to put up $100,000. And he came straight
back and he said you have your first $100k. So that was
pretty exciting. So that was our first box ticked it also
meant that I had to follow through and make this happen.
Once we’d secured the first donor, I then had to find the
other three. And it's not easy asking someone for
$100,000. So for the next one, I was sitting in Australia at
a horse-sale auction. And a man by the name of John
Messara of Arrowfield Stud was at our table.
I said, John, I need to talk to you. And I started my pitch
on the campervan. And he said Catriona I am in. And I
carried on with the pitch. I hadn’t heard him. He just said
Catriona, I am in. I stopped and thought, ‘Oh my gosh we
have just received a second $100,000.
It was important that we got people that understood the
why. When you're in a wheelchair, it's very easy to work, in
the sense that you get behind a computer, pick up the
phone, but it's hard to find the fun stuff. You can't go
running on the beach and feel the sand between your
toes. You can't reach down and pick a child up and give
them a big squeeze. It all has to be managed and planned
and logistics sorted. Even going on a holiday.
That was the biggie for me. You even feel guilty because
you're going on a holiday but somebody able-bodied has
to spend a lot of time looking after you. You could book
into a hotel, is the shower accessible and all those factors,
it just makes planning a holiday easier.
ACCESS—It's still going to be the van that you need to travel with
an able-bodied buddy, but it will be set up for wheelie needs rather
than just able-bodied needs.
The third person that I talked to was Debbie Kepitis. I got
to know her through the thoroughbred industry. Debbie is
famous for racing a horse called Winx which is one of the