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Bernadette on the ScootAbility bike, with Ricky |
‘My life been has changed... I’m a new kind of mum now’
High-risk surgery saved this mother’s life, but it was a scooter scheme that revived her
TWO years ago Bernadette Otesanya, a 45-year-old mother of three and wife of 15 years to Ricky, weighed 28 stone and suffered from rheumatoid arthritis, the debilitating condition which left her reliant on her husband for her every need.
Unable to go out alone, she depended on Ricky to push her wheelchair around should she fancy a trip to the shops or a natter with her mum, who lives around the corner from her Hilgrove Road home in Swiss Cottage.
Now her life has turned around. Not only has she lost 15 stone after a stomach-shrinking operation in February, but she can now go out on her own thanks to a life-changing scheme that allows disabled people to “borrow” a scooter for a short period each week.
The council runs a free scheme called ScootAbility, which currently has 500 members on its books. Clients call up a few days before they need a bike and book it out for a block of say three days. The bike is delivered and picked up from their door and there is a Rolls Royce rescue service should they break down.
“It’s given me legs. It’s a great scheme,” said Mrs Otesanya, who insists one of the greatest impacts it’s had on her life is the ability she now has to look after her two daughters, Ashleigh, 16, and Aaliyah, 14.
“I’m a new kind of mum,” said Mrs Otesanya, a Jehovah’s Witness. “I went clothes shopping with them for the first time in June. Usually my sisters or friends did it and I’d get pictures and tell them what I thought from here. It was an exhilarating feeling.”
She also praised the telephone staff who she books the scooter with. “Though I’ve never met them, they are like friends and someday I look forward to putting a face to the voices,” she said.
By no means has life been easy for Mrs Otesanya. She piled on weight – despite eating less than anyone else in her family – after the arthritis left her unable to move and the medication, in the shape of steroids, pumped her up.
Her body became a prison. After two heart attacks and high blood pressure, Mrs Otesanya’s knew the high-risk stomach surgery, known as a gastric bypass, was her only option, even though it carries a warning tag: one in 100 patients die.
Mrs Otesanya and her husband, who is her full time carer and has developed problems with his legs that make it impossible for him to work, survive on incapacity and carers benefits. There is never much to go around and she would love to get out of the house and do more.
Should her health allow her, she wants to train as a youth counsellor and jokes that she is an agony aunt to her children’s friends.
And does it ever get her down? A naturally bubbly person, she also has her faith and the support of the local congregation to fall back on. Her husband – who she met at a party 25 years ago and who she was less than convinced about before they fell in love – has also been a rock.
“When I met him I wasn’t disabled and when I found out I tried to push him away because I didn’t want him to be stuck with a disabled girl.
“But he wouldn’t let me,” she said, “and I’m glad.”
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Your comments:
I am the daughter of Mrs Otesanya, she is such a wonderful person, before and after her operation. Seeing my mum do things she never did before is amazing. Going shopping, doing things like drawing, swimming, even going out with my mum for a walk around the block is fun and amazing.
Aaliyah xx |
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