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LIFE GOES ON
Havnig set up this website in the Autumn of 2006 I added little to it for a number of years as the site continued to deliver the disability awareness message I wanted to give, has a nice flow to it and, in any case, I never intended to live out my life in such a public domain. However, there are a couple of items of note that have happened in the intervening years: 1) After this website originally appeared some officials at Oulton Park invited me to contribute to their marshal's newsletter. Via email I interviewed a range of people for my column - mostly local drivers and officials but I’ve featured such well known names as Sir Stirling Moss, Martin Brundle and Jonathan Palmer. Things have gradually developed... I was asked to report on race meetings for the club that organises them and eventually I had a small piece published in Autosport at the end of 2012 before covering a number of small events for them the following year. Furthermore I’ve branched out into website design and manage a couple of motorsport related websites. I really enjoy being creative and in a bid to further develop this area I have set up Gramtext Media - www.gramtext.co.uk 2) In 2010 I became disillusioned with the American owners of Liverpool Football Club. At the same time my local team, Chester FC, reformed as a fan owned entity. There was such enthusiasm surrounding the project - it was everything that Liverpool wasn't at the time - that I decided to change allegance. I am now quite heavily involved with the club’s disability group and use my journalistic experience to assist in proof-reading the match day programmes. It has been a very exciting journey as Chester FC won 3 league titles in as many seasons since reformation. 3) In early 2012 my mother celebrated her 80th birthday in Sydney with her brother... I stayed at home and was visited 3 times a day by staff from a care agency. This was the first time I had "fended for myself". Initially, I thought my head was going to explode, there was so much to remember - not only with managing the house but also I had to convey in great detail my requirements to the cares but at the start of week 2 (of 3) everything seemed to click into place and it all worked brilliantly. It was fantastic to put into practice all the independence strategies I had built up over the years. 4) Just before mum headed off to Australia, I took delivery of the most powerful wheelchair I have ever owned - an Invacare Kite. I had tested a number of chairs over the years but they were all too large to use indoors. The Kite was one of the smallest outdoor models on the market when it was launched in 2011. It’s compact footprint enables me to use it in the office but more importantly it has given me a great deal of freedom away from work and I often take myself off for a “walk” around my home town. Furthermore, it’s off-road capabilities have enabled me to get to vantage points at Oulton Park that I would never dream of asking my mother to take me to in a manual wheelchair.