Charity celebrates 50 years of transforming the lives of people with disabilities

National charity Remap has transformed the lives of more than 100,000 disabled people – from athletes and ex-service personnel to children and older people – with the help of its hard-working volunteers who have built equipment to help these individuals lead independent lives.

The charity, which has its golden anniversary this month and now works in 80 branches across the UK, counts engineers, craftspeople, technicians and healthcare professionals among its army of more than 1,000 volunteers who have devoted their time and expertise to turning around the lives of individuals affected by disability.

Adam Rowe, chief executive officer of Remap commented: “Remap has been transforming lives because of the selfless support from our volunteers over the last 50 years. Every piece of equipment enables people to try and undertake everyday tasks or help them achieve their ambitions. I look forward to the next generation of volunteers signing up to volunteer with us to continue changing people’s lives.”

The volunteers carry out a full consultation with each client to understand their specific needs. Using this information they then design and build bespoke equipment that enables the individual to overcome challenges in undertaking everyday tasks and activities, providing a solution to a problem that cannot be answered by commercially available equipment.

Sue Lunn from Basingstoke has multiple sclerosis and uses an electronically powered wheelchair. She can drive an adapted car, but once she has transferred from the wheelchair to the car the wheelchair is marooned. Remap solved the problem using a remote control model aircraft system and adapted it so Sue could operate the controls on the wheelchair from the driving seat of the car. Sue says: “ I always hoped there could be such a device. But Remap has made it a reality. I’m now free and independent and totally amazed.”

Barry has been a volunteer with Remap for three years and says “this is the best thing I have ever done, I get more satisfaction and sheer life affirming joy and pleasure out of it than anything else. I had no idea before this how much helping others adds to the sum of one’s own happiness”.

REMAP was formed in 1964 by Pat Johnson, a former Royal Engineer who worked for ICI. Pat had a sister who had had infantile polio, which presented her with physical problems in coping with her day-to-day life. He built a wooden ramp up to his sister’s front door and also installed an electric hoist, with a runway, above the ceiling in the hallway, bathroom and toilet of the bungalow.

His sister was overjoyed with the ramp and hoist, as immediately they gave her a level of independence she had never enjoyed before. Pat was so impressed with the immense change his relatively simple improvements had made to his sister's quality of life it led him to found Remap and soon other engineers at ICI became involved and helped him to build the charity.

To find out about becoming a volunteer go to http://www.remap.org.uk/volunteering-for-remap/what-get-out-of-remap.html

Remap relies solely on donations and you can help us to continue to transform lives by donating to us at http://www.remap.org.uk/support-remap/how-to-donate.html