Andy and Charlotte recently got to view London from an entirely new vantage point: from the top of the O2 Arena. “Up at the O2” is an event at the arena that allows visitors to climb the outer exterior of the dome and view the city from above.
Andy is a high-level quadriplegic from a spinal tumor. For Christmas, Andy’s wife Charlotte gave him the climb as a gift after learning that the venue offered wheelchair accessible climbs.
On the morning of the climb, Andy and Charlotte awoke early to prepare for their day. After getting Andy settled into his chair, they drove 4 hours to get to the venue. Once there, they worked with the O2 staff to prepare Andy for the climb. “Andy was transferred into a sports wheelchair that had a trike wheel added to it to lift the front end up,” explains Charlotte. “The centre has full hoisting equipment at both ends of the dome to enable us to do that and with as much dignity and privacy as possible. The trike wheel almost didn’t fit on because andy has such long legs and we had to squash him up a bit more than we all would’ve liked but we got it in and it worked.”
The climb took a total of 3 hours to complete. Andy and Charlotte were joined by 2 other couples, Andy’s nurse key worker, and 4 O2 staff members trained specifically to assist with wheelchair climbs. Charlotte reflects on her and Andy’s trip up the O2:
“It was an amazing experience, well worth the effort we had to put in. It happened to fall on our wedding anniversary, so we got to celebrate 52m up in the air!”
Now that is celebrating in style!