Dear all cleaning and maintenance staff at Cabot Circus, Bristol,

I’m writing this to request that the batteries for the hoist in the Changing Places toilet in Glass House be checked and charged more regularly, after an unfortunate incident on Wednesday; namely the hoist running out of charge mid use. I was in the hoist (and late back to a course I was attending) waiting to get back into my wheelchair whilst staff went to find the batteries, the first of which wasn’t charged. They had to go away again and find a second one, which thankfully was charged. That got me wondering though, what if that second battery hadn’t been charged?

My PA cannot lift me, and I can’t bear my own weight or transfer under my own physical steam, and I’m pretty sure our only option of asking the staff to help, however well meaning and willing they might have been, would’ve raised a whole other load of health and safety questions. Being disabled and faced with issues and “what ifs” like this puts us in an incredibly vulnerable position, and the thought of having to ask complete strangers to help makes me feel anxious, both on my behalf and their own. I consider it a massive mercy that I’d finished using the toilet by then, if I hadn’t actually been able to use it because the battery was dead, things would have been extremely embarrassing and messy…

Not forgetting that that toilet is the only one in the entire complex that those of us who need a hoist to transfer can use, there was a woman waiting to use the facility with her son who was also having to wait whilst I was sitting helplessly in the sling. It’s embarrassing and you feel like an inconvenience to everyone around you, something we deal with daily as disabled people as we do our best to live our lives in a society that consistently puts up barriers for us to contend with.

It’s wonderful that you have the Changing Place toilet, they make such a difference to the quarter of a million of us who rely on them, they allow us to be able to go about our day without having to watch how much we drink, or endure kidney pain as we hold it in. Being able to use the toilet with ease is something I think too many able bodied people take for granted – there are only just over 1,357 Changing Places in the country, and ten of them are currently registered in Bristol. I can’t fault the manager, who was extremely kind and apologetic after I did eventually get back in my chair, but please be more mindful of keeping the hoist batteries charged!

Yours Sincerely,

Kerrie Nicholson