optimisticbiker reborn

meanredspider

nicklouse wrote:

It will be on the London BBC news tonight. From 18:30

The person, if it's him (also an IT person) was on R4 PM earlier.

veronese68

I don't normally click on DM links, but I did for that one. I'm sure that's him, that is absolutely brilliant. If you read this OB I hope things are going well for you, I often wonder how you are getting on.

spasypaddy

it is him.

and i wont lie, the story brought a tear to my eye.

meanredspider

spasypaddy wrote:

it is him.

Very cool

Kieran_Burns

Mr Newman, Burton, United Kingdom, 29 minutes ago

That's awesome......THE IRVINATOR

I need a "We are not worthy smiley"

cjcp

Wonderful

rjsterry

Fantastic news. I may have something in my eye.

roger_merriman

Great stuff, I'm sure that he's and his family have had to work hard.

nicklouse

If you did not see it

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-29316930

redvee

Saw the BBC story earlier but didn't put two and two together.

graham.

Heard his interview with Eddie Mair last night. Thought That sounds like OB"!
He sounded really positive. All the best to him and his family.

davis

That's chuffing awesome. Absolutely brilliant.

MonkeyMonster

Awesome, electric trike next for sure!

rubertoe

Amazing work OB. I hope you are well.

itboffin

Brilliant

Anonymous

Just reading through the very first posts in this thread and goes to show how far things have moved along. Couldn't be more happy for you. I hope you're doing well.

MisterMuncher

Utterly inspiring. Mail commenters, though. Some truly abysmal human beings there.

davis

Not my place to comment, I am not a doctitian, etc, etc, etc, but I can't read this without thinking of (and hoping for) OB:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-29645760

UndercoverElephant

davis wrote:

Not my place to comment, I am not a doctitian, etc, etc, etc, but I can't read this without thinking of (and hoping for) OB:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-29645760

OB was on Five Live yesterday lunchtime to talk about it. Early days of the potential treatment, obviously, and the guy who had the therapy was injured much lower down the back than him (OB is tetraplegic), so it may not work in cases such as his even if the treatment works for other people. Said that even if he regained the use of his arms, it would be a huge bonus to him - more so than being able to walk again.

davis

UndercoverElephant wrote:

davis wrote:

Not my place to comment, I am not a doctitian, etc, etc, etc, but I can't read this without thinking of (and hoping for) OB:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-29645760

OB was on Five Live yesterday lunchtime to talk about it. Early days of the potential treatment, obviously, and the guy who had the therapy was injured much lower down the back than him (OB is tetraplegic), so it may not work in cases such as his even if the treatment works for other people. Said that even if he regained the use of his arms, it would be a huge bonus to him - more so than being able to walk again.

Yeah - I'd have guessed that OB's injury wasn't a "prime candidate" for the treatment, but medical science's simply amazing.

Kieran_Burns

Now go read the comments and sort them by voted down order. Then despair for mankind all over again.

veronese68

Kieran_Burns wrote:

Now go read the comments and sort them by voted down order. Then despair for mankind all over again.

Comments sections in normal order make me despair, so I certainly wont be doing that.
Sounds promising for people with these types of injuries in future though.

UndercoverElephant

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b04lnyn9

OB comes on at 2h 18 or so. Adrian Chiles is still a tosser.

rubertoe

It would be nice to know how OB is getting on. he certainly seems to be (please excuse my choice of words here) not one to simply sit on his backside and let the world pass him by.

optimisticbiker

[url=http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=19187099#p19187099]rubertoe[/url] wrote:

It would be nice to know how OB is getting on. he certainly seems to be (please excuse my choice of words here) not one to simply sit on his backside and let the world pass him by.

Hi All,

I'm back - I can't believe its nearly 2y since I last posted - well I never really went away, but have been in a 'bad place' mentally for a bit, partly down to the stress of trying to manage getting the house sorted.

Just to recap we finally got planning permission. Although planning committee voted to approve in Nov 2013 it had to wait til the next meeting before they could formally grant so was finally granted Dec 2013. A neat twist in the tail was the planning officer forgot to add the conditions of approval to the agenda so it was voted through with no conditions including keeping to the 'approved' plans so we used that to make subtle changes to improve the look, e.g. reducing the setback on the extension to 0.5m from 1m to match the house next door and give more internal room and the solar panels on the flat roof. I think the results speak for themselves... before n after pics:



You all saw the media frenzy in Sep 2014 when my daughter got married and I borrowed the REX exoskeleton. That was a surreal couple of weeks with media interviews and a live TV appearance I completely fluffed - definitely 'rabbit in headlights' moment when being interviewed by Victoria Hollins.

We didn't move back to our house in til Dec 2014; should have taken 8m but was nearer a year and way over budget. With the house adaptations mostly done (tho the gym/workshop has had to go on hold due to lack of funds), my eldest son, his wife and my granddaughter back from Oz, and my daughter expecting in Feb 2016 things are on the up again. The hand bike project stalled through lack of funds but also difficulty finding local 'engineering' facilities to make stuff for me (again partly due to funds). I naively thought I'd get my workshop built and then find a way to do this stuff - turned out to be much harder than I imagined.

In fact everything is harder. Despite physio and gym, my triceps are basically getting worse, maybe got 20% on RH and virtually none on LH so transfers have become virtually impossible, and hoisting is the main route for bed to powerchair etc. Lifting stuff is difficult at times, tho biceps aren't bad.

Spending a couple of 2h sessions in the gym a week, especially using the hand and leg bikes for some cardio. The leg bike uses electrical stimulation to drive my legs muscles sonthey actually do the pedalling. Its quite weird watching your legs pedalling 'on their own'. Managing 9 miles in 45mins albeit at a puny 5W output but its improving.

So I'm back working on some designs for rehab equipment, the hand bike mentioned earlier is still planned, but I'm focusing now on the FES leg bike. These cost from £10 - £20k depending on features which puts them out of the reach of most disabled people unless there's a nice insurance pot to play with. I'm fairly sure I could do something more affordable through clever design and manufacture/supply via a not-for-profit company. I've tried raising funds but seems most angel investors want to see a prototype and a team - don't have either, yet. Crowdfunding aka KickStarter or the like doesn't work here, there are no 'rewards' or 'goodies' to offer to attract 'investors'. So I've started a funding campaign through Generosity.com, a philanthropic donation site to fund a couple of prototypes and I'm unashamedly asking for donations, doesn't have be huge amounts, just lots of them . I've had an offer from an engineering firm to machine parts for me but they're way up north and really I need someone local so we can trial & error stuff so if someone knows of/has an engineering facility that can help please let me know.

And I promise to try and keep this updated more often!

meanredspider

Great to hear from you, OB, and the progress you are making (despite the setbacks). Good luck with everything!

veronese68

Indeed, good to hear from you and thanks for the update. I can imagine you would go through many bad places as you put it. Sounds like you are still moving on though, I'm sure the slow progress must be very frustrating at times. House looks good, glad it eventually it was sorted to your satisfaction.
All the best for the leg bike, sounds interesting.

spasypaddy

great to hear from you.

hope you get the funding you need and deserve. if you email me i can put you in contact with someone who works on grants and might be able to advise you on whether you are able to claim any. spasypaddy@gmail.com

roger_merriman

I was thinking that you'd disappeared quite recently.

Sorry to hear you'd been in a bad place, sadly seems quite common for life changing stuff.

That FES leg bike sounds fascinating, I use handbikes for work occasionally and see David Wier and co wizz around the park now and then, but hadn't heard of a FES bike.

Glad things are getting sorted slowly.

optimisticbiker

[url=http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=19754297#p19754297]roger merriman[/url] wrote:

I was thinking that you'd disappeared quite recently.

Sorry to hear you'd been in a bad place, sadly seems quite common for life changing stuff.

That FES leg bike sounds fascinating, I use handbikes for work occasionally and see David Wier and co wizz around the park now and then, but hadn't heard of a FES bike.

Glad things are getting sorted slowly.

Well this is a static exerciser. The researchers from UCL I've been working with have a recumbent trike fitted with the same technology, but its an older steel-frame beast that weighs nearly 22kg so is fairly hard to get going. My longer term goal is a very lightweight semi-recumbent trike based on a carbon fibre monocoque with both hand and FES leg power and electric assist for the hills.