Wheels-on-fire rolling down the road...

We are well chuffed with the new Chunc wheelchair. We wanted the Chunc chair because not only does it have a great and comfortable seating system for our severely disabled son, it also supports his hips, which are starting to deteriorate and his spine, which has a 22 degree curvature. The Chunc has a pommel to stop him sliding out of position and a 6-point harnessing system across his waist, chest and torso to hold him in a good place.

The Chunc is an incredibly light and manoeuvrable chair and it feels like you are handling a top-performing sports car.  It has a comfortable pushing position for us, his carers, which can be adjusted according to the height of the carer.

But more than that, it looks cool and is not overly medicalised. We know from past experience, the Chunc capable of some serious travelling and came with us across to Eastern Europe, and a previous Chunc we had is so light yet so hard-wearing it was carried by us up and down an Austrian Alp, so that our son could experience an Alpine waterfall.

On the practical side of cleaning and maintaining the chair, we have always found the Chunc chairs really easy to strip the cushions off and bung into the washing machine.  The central chest brace needs a wash after meals and can be fully detached and again bunged straight into the machine.  We think we will get a spare brace for this purpose. It's also a great chair to take to the car wash for a hose down of the it's parts. Many a time when camping in France (when we were allowed such indulgences), I'd sneak off with the chair in the early hours of the morning to the local petrol station cum drive thorough laundromat and give the car and the wheelchair a full clean. Ah, those were the day's my friends... 

'The Chunc Chair' is designed and built in the UK by a company called CHUNC For more info on this cool cool chair visit the Chunc website via this link: https://www.chunc.com/

NHS Planning Guidance includes wheelchairs. It is expected that CCGs will achieve 92% in relation to the 18 week Referral to Treatment standard waiting time for children. This has been reduced from the previous 100% following feedback from key stakeholders and a review of the target. NHS England is holding CCGs to account for performance against this target through the CCG assurance programme.

For more information see https://www.england.nhs.uk/wheelchair-services/

We plumped for a personal budget because

• the old chair was seven years old and had served us well 
• there was a need for a new chair as our son is now 16 years old and a lot bigger than when he was 9 years old
• due to his age and growth serious medical issues were arising with his spine and hips
• the time scales that we were given for getting the new CAPPS2 chair was 16 plus weeks (another 4 months or so) due to supply chain issues. 

The NHS has more information on gettinga personal wheelchair budget here: https://www.england.nhs.uk/personal-health-budgets/personal-wheelchair-budgets/