“My name is Julie and I joined the Wheelchair Service in Gillingham in November 2025.

I qualified as an Occupational Therapist in 2002 in London. I began the first 4 years of my career as an OT in Northern Ireland where I was born and brought up and worked in The Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast..."

Charging your wheelchair and other things to take into account: 

1. Chargers are designed to be used overnight, even if you are using the chair for 15 mins during the day, the charger is designed to charge the chair to capacity.
2. If you are not using your chair for an extended period (a week plus), put it on charge overnight once every 4-5 days.
3. Please avoid picking at the arm pads.
4. Please avoid cigarette burns on the fabric and cushions.
5. Please refrain from pressure washing powered wheelchairs.
6. The chair should not be stored outside.

Do you need an engineer? 

• If there is excessive movement in anything, even non safety pieces of the chair, please call for an engineer to resolve it as tightening a bolt is far easier and cheaper than replacing a complete arm side, and it needs to be fixed whatever happens, suffering through it is not a good idea.
• If you call for a repair, and something else happens between the initial call and the engineer arriving, please call again and have this added to the existing job as we may be able to fix both things in one visit.
• Photos are very helpful for identifying parts, but make sure to include an overall photo of the chair as sometimes the close ups do not help, and having a tape measure can also help.
• The engineers are under time constraints, we are very aware that the next job could either be 5 mins, or 2 hours, please be out of the chair (if possible) so that the engineer can get the job started quickly.
• Please maintain a level of cleanliness of the chair, our engineers cannot work on chairs if there is risk of contamination.
• We will endeavour to provide you either an AM or PM appointment, but please bear in mind we cannot give you guarantees as we are unable to predict how previous jobs will go.

The Wheelchair Alliance has called on Government to remove ‘ridiculous’ guidance that could see children needing driving licences for wheelchairs. Here, Nick Goldup, COO and chair of the Alliance explains more.

The Wheelchair Alliance is an organisation which represents the voices of wheelchair users and we have urged the Government to act now on an update to current guidance that would require disabled children to have driving licences and insurance for their powered wheelchairs.

My name is Archie and  I have been a wheelchair user for almost 3 years. Sport has always been a big part of my life so when I started using a wheelchair it was important for me to find ways to still be part of the sports I loved and to find sports where I'd be supported and understood when my health changed...

We're shining a spotlight on two of our colleagues... Theresa Hodges, Clinical Lead in Ashford and Nicky Parks, Customer Service Administrator in Gillingham.

Read on to learn more about Theresa and Nicky and their work at Kent and Medway Wheelchair Service.

Mae’n wych cael y cyfle drwy’r cylchlythyr hwn i drafod gwaith pwysig y Gynghrair Cadair Olwyn, felly diolch am roi o’ch amser i ddarllen hwn. Fy enw i yw Nick Goldup y Cadeirydd ac, ers mis Chwefror, Prif Swyddog Gweithredu’r Gynghrair.

Fy enw i yw Amber ac rwyf wedi bod gyda’r Gwasanaeth Cadair Olwyn ers dros 8 mlynedd. Cyn hynny roeddwn yn gweithio ym maes manwerthu ac nid oedd gennyf unrhyw syniad am gymhlethdodau'r gwasanaeth cadair olwyn na hyd yn oed yr offer. Felly, roedd y diwrnod cyntaf o weithio i'n gwasanaeth atgyweirio cymeradwy ar y pryd ym maes gwasanaeth cwsmeriaid yn ddiddorol.