Gloria Lovell-Simons, one of the many active volunteers at the St Andrews Anglican Church Op Shop in Tea Gardens, was an avid camper for much of her life, but recent health issues have set her back.

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After finding a relatively lightweight carbon-fibre wheeled chair, she still faced the regular challenge of extracting her mobility device from her van, as well as loading it up again.

Once Gloria’s situation was brought to the attention of local miracle workers, and fellow St Andrews Op Shop volunteer workers, Barry Barnes and Stuart Hamilton, they set about finding a solution.

“We knew that Goria had an issue with lifting and loading her chair into her van, and went for something that was simple and manageable,” Barry told News Of The Area.

“We investigated what was available on the market, found nothing quite suitable nor practical to this particular case, so we made our own – designed one that was easy for Gloria to operate without any stress.”

Barry and Stuart engineered a solution in the form of a one-person, button-operated crane, attached snugly to the frame inside the back door of her van.

Gloria now merely hooks her new chair to the crane, raises it with a push of a button, swings the whole load into a specially kept space inside the vehicle, and reverses the process to unload.

“It was fortunate that her car had the structural frame that gave us something to mount the crane on, and Tea Gardens Bosch finished off the electrics to power it from within.”

Gloria said she was thrilled, “They solved it in a day, and I have my independence back.”

The modification has enabled her to deck out the rest of her van, with assistance from her sons, so she can pursue some light camping once again.

By Thomas O’KEEFE