Rental mobility scooters: ticket to ride

DRIVING your own mobility scooter for a small weekly fee has meant a new independence and been an "absolute Godsend" for a group of Marton residents who were once laid up at home with a range of disabilities.
Thanks to the Marton Lions Club, the four are on the move again and loving it.
For a service fee of just $5 a week this troop has been mobilised.
They can not only hit the town now, do the supermarket, bookshop, caf? and pharmacy, they can even dally a while and chat with old friends.
Lions club organiser Bradyn Moss said the club had started by buying one scooter more than seven years ago to help one elderly man, a diabetic who had had his legs amputated.
The $3500 cost of a new scooter had been totally prohibitive for the man and his wife, so Lions members voted to step in and help.
It was fantastic for both of them. He was able to get out of the house, and his wife was able to enjoy some precious free time, Mr Moss said.
"The old chap would head down to his local each day and bar staff would lift him out of his scooter and on to a bar stool for a couple of hours and a couple of fine whiskies," he said.
It wasn't until after the man died and his widow returned the scooter that the Lions realised there was a real need in Marton for disability scooter rentals.
The club now has 12 on the go, with four new scooters arriving in two weeks, he said.
"The demand is incredible. We even have a waiting list."
When Mr Moss spoke for the first time at a national conference of Lions Clubs last month about the scooter rentals, other clubs around New Zealand were inspired, he said.
"About half a dozen clubs are now trying to set up the service in their towns. I've had so many phone calls since our conference."
Yesterday's scooter group said that to say the service had made them happy was an understatement.
"It saved my life," said Molly Davis, who suffers from osteo-arthritis in both hips, which means she cannot walk or stand for even a few minutes.
"I can go out now. If I see a friend in the street, I can stop and talk. It's lovely getting out and talking to people again," she said.
Frank Hill reckons he would have "given up the ghost" long ago if he hadn't had his scooter.
He attributes his now very "feeble" legs to old, old age. "It's done me in," he said.
Halley Toa-Wairere said he's the new rider on the block.
"They chopped off my legs a year ago. I had diabetes, you see. I would be no good without my scooter. No good at all. I clock up seven kilometres a day."
Former taxi driver Dusty Miller is a bit of a "scooter veteran".
A car smash years ago, where a drunken driver hit his taxi head-on, left Mr Miller disabled for life.
"It left me with a stiff right leg, which just got worse over the years. Now it's no good at all. I can hardly walk at just a couple of steps, really."