For as long as I can remember I’ve enjoyed travel. As a child, Mum and Dad used to ensure my wheelchair could go on the plane, in the taxi and around the hotel. It wasn’t until I was 22 that I saved up, researched, planned and booked my first independent trip, to Australia! It required 2 PAs, extra care budget, hoists and major will power. Continue reading
Patrick with friends and family at the Calvert Trust catamaran on Lake Windermere, April 2011:
We were staying in a Calvert Trust accessible self catering bungalow just outside of Keswick. Sailing is one of the activities offered to visitors, we also used their beautiful swimming pool.
The day we went for a sail the weather was not too promising at the start so we all got togged up in the waterproofs provided. With a good breeze we were fairly whipping over the waves at first – very exhilerating!
To visit an African country had been on the agenda from the beginning. We finally chose South Africa because of advice from people with a good knowledge of planning expeditions in Africa. Epic Enabled, a company who have experience in running safaris for wheelchair travellers is based in South Africa and it made a lot of sense to join their 8 day safari and base the trip around that. Continue reading
For the second leg of the tour, we headed East in September, to Hong Kong. From there we travelled through South Korea, Japan, Australia, New Zealand and Hawaii and arrived back in Edinburgh on the 2nd February. This involved some very long flights. Continue reading
Lots of people helped to turn the Wicked World Tour from a dream into a reality, and their help came in many different forms. Here are just some of them…
On our last day in Seattle, the back left support of Patrick’s wheelchair sheared completely. This mean the chairback tilted unsupportively and the wheelchair was almost un-pushable.We made a fairly ineffectual splint and had to wait until the following day to find a welder who did what turned out to be a temporary repair. Meantime Pach had to lie on an airbed in sweltering heat.
In Los Angeles the other side broke! Pach waited patiently for an emergency hire one to be delivered while Margaret went to:
Hong Kong
In recent months, Nicolle has helped at fundraising events in our absence, helping to widen our circle of contacts.
Many companies and organisations have donated raffle prizes and gifts more recently too, including Glenkinchie Distillery, Belhaven Brewery, Dynamic Earth, Odeon Cinemas, McSween’s Haggis, Chiquito’s, Megabowl and more…
Kwang-Hun was born on the 18th of April 1977. He lives in Pusan, South Korea and since going home has acquired a good job, a lovely girlfriend and a fast car. He is remembered for being a real honey, hard working, fun, fantastic and for being all round excellent part-time mother.
Steve is from Portland, Oregon. He was born on July 1st 1981. His favourite food is subway sandwiches and his favourite place to visit is Scotland! His communication skills are so poor that he often has us worried about his welfare.
Chris is a friend of Steve’s who stepped in to help with the first tour. He got married in the summer of 2006 to Michelle and is still just the best communicator.
Chris hails from Armadale in West Lothian. He is an avid Celtic supporter.
Not enough words to describe how wonderful Katie is. Katie is from Haddington and her birthday is 29th July 1983. She is a wonderfully empathetic person who is still a firm friend. She graduated as a nurse on the 17th of November 2006. Lucky NHS!
Min is a delightful South Korean woman who accompanied us on the second tour. She is beautiful, eccentric, a great organiser, has a quirky sense of humour and is a fabulous cook.
Jong – Han is a South Korean man who helped when the tour was in South Korea and Japan. He is strong, organised, thoughtful and very caring. He is also very handsome but that is irrelevant (or maybe not).
Kei was Patrick’s first ever CSV from Japan who helped to organise the Tour in Japan and later became a helper on the South Africa trip. He is kind, hard-working, modest and truly lovable.
Andy was born on the 22nd of July. He is handy at just about everything he turns his mind to. He left his support position on the home team to help with the South African trip. He famously abseiled off Table Mountain and was particularly pleased to see so many lions because he was missing his cats.
I joined the tour for a while in the US and again in the antipodes for a bit of a junket and to throw my weight around as the mother figure. I had a brilliant time, found plenty of opportunity to exhibit my bossy nature and loved everybody. Currently I am embarking on the serious business of improving my golf and learning to dance some salsa.
After years of action as a disabled rights campaigner Raymond helped us to try and sort through our ideas and vision. Along with other home team members he worked on making the office accessible. He was always at the end of the phone when we were trying to function as a good team away from home. He has helped us look at our strategy by facilitating a visioning dayand we hope to keep in touch with him in his present work with the Thistle Foundation.
Joined the volunteers as part of the home team. Her imagination and sense of humour contributed greatly to meetings and her baking skills were fantastic for fundraisers. Sadly Heather died after a long struggle with illness.
Margaret Bremner was born in Glasgow 11th September 1954 and is now living in Edinburgh. I’m glad to have been in on this mind-blowing experience since the beginning, part of the team on all the travels and now company secretary.
Eddie was born on the 11th August 1982. He studied English in Wales. Eddie loves surfing, food, travel, music, reading, good company like your fine selves at Cockenzie. But doesn’t like Lists, Tony Blair, people getting stressed and the prospect of full time work obviously quite as much.
Mary was born on the 5th June 1987. Mary is Scottish, has known Alistair for 20 and half years and Patrick since she was born. She values them as good friends and neighbours.
Sheila was born on the 21st March in 1951 in Glasgow, Scotland. She studied Geography amongst other things at Glasgow University. She has also undertaken community education at Jordanhill College and in things including non-violence, women’s studies and CELTA. She likes to travel, read, hillwalk and spend time with friends and family along with food, drink and being in the fresh air and sunshine. She got involved with Wicked World Tour at the beginning after thinking “Are they really serious?” and then realising Pach and Ali truly were. The part of WWT she’s enjoyed most is the Safari in Kruger National Park. In the future she hopes WWT will have a fabulous motor home that is accessible by all and booked by adventurous travellers.
Misako was born on the 1st July 1980. Misako really enjoyed working with WWT. In Misako’s own words “It’s great”
Older than she looks and younger than she feels. Got involved with Wicked World Tour because she really wanted to climb seven Munros in one day and two old pals said, ‘well, we have a good cause we could raise some money for at the same time…’ She later became part of the ‘home team’ and is a Director of WWT. She likes long mountain climbs, short meetings and good company.
Generous with her time and energy,Val has helped make fundraisers go with a swing. Now part of the committee and bringing good sense and good sandwiches to meetings.
John is a director and company treasurer. He has held this post since the company was started in December 2002. He worked as base camp co-ordinator for the team’s world trips.
He works with Lothian and Borders Police as a Liaison Officer in the Edinburgh Sheriff Court as Standby Officer. He is also involved with the Vine Trust, a Scottish charity working with the people of the Amazon in Peru. He went to Peru to work on the Vine trust medical ships in 2004 and again in 2007
Ella has over 30 years experience in the social care sector. She has provided direct services to people, managed teams and organisations as well as being involved in national strategic development and reviews. She is the Director at Edinburgh Voluntary Organisations Council and is committed to working with people to ensure that they can develop sustainable services which meet their individual and communities’ needs.
Guitarist, projectionist, soundman, always calming and always believing that the dream can come true. Sadly Bob Cairns is no longer with us.
Alistair David Knox or Ali, lived from May the 18th 1987 to October the 11th 2007. He describes himself as follows:
Hi, I’m Ali, I’m 19 at the mo. I have just completed my first year of a four year honours degree in molecular genetics at the University of Dundee. I’m a typical fun-loving 19 year old guy. My love of learning coupled with my enthusiasm for languages and food inflames my desire to travel.
Since returning from our Wicked World Tour I have caught a particularly virulent strain of the travel bug. I have realised that the only cure for this is to keep travelling. The time I spent on the Wicked World Tour was the best 11 months of my life. I am very optimistic about the future of the charity, we can and will make a difference to the travel options available to people with disabilities.
He was an ambitious, enthusiastic and inspiring man, who exemplified many of the best possible character traits, such as the fact that he could be amusing, exciting, independent, kind and a positive optimist who normally displayed these traits at the right times. Although he had a challenging life, he managed to enjoy it and to do many things, which are not normal, even amongst the able-bodied majority.
He went to Colombia, Peru and Brazil and he won a child of achievement award at school and he got to go to London and meet J.K. Rowling.
This is not to mention the fact that he was involved in the Wicked Word Tour planning stage and he also got to go on the Wicked World Tour and be a member of the travelling team. He was also very important in keeping track of things which were found out. Also he was so influential in starting the charity called Wicked World Tours as well and even now, after his death I ask myself would this mean that Wicked World Tours is moving in a direction which Ali would approve of.
He helped record the research by playing a major role in directing and producing the ‘Access All Areas’ videos and he also often features in the three videos. He was and always will be a super star in my mind.
– Patrick Knox
My name is Patrick James Knox, or to my friends I’m Pach. My date of birth is the 24th July 1984.
I’m proud of being Scottish. I consider myself to be a kind, generous, humorous, ingenious optimist who likes listening to crime audio books and Harry Potter. One more thing that everyone agrees on is that I’m quite partial to the occasional dark-hued, blonde-headed Irish alcoholic beverage.
I was fortunate enough to take part in all three Wicked World Tour expeditions. I helped to plan and recorded some of the information in the log book, which is available for a donation. I am also among the founders and directors of the charity Wicked World Tours, as well as a budding author, and I look forward to my first blooming book!
I have recently started a page for Facebook, and if you are on it, please look for my page, and remember if you would like to become my friend, either because there is something of which I missed out here, or because you just wish to chat with me, please mention that you heard of this on www.wickedworldtours.org.uk.
The first leg of the trip took us to the USA, Canada and Mexico, an incredible journey that involved planes, trains, cars and buses. Not to mention boats, ferries, subways and helicopters! Continue reading
The first tour began on June 24th 2003, rolled round the globe and ended on May 26th 2004. At least, the travelling bit happened between those dates. Before that, a lot of work had to be done to make it happen.
The original idea was simple. Raise money, buy a bus, convert it, then go round the world in it. But the timescale we were working to meant that this just wasn’t possible. Along the way, we accepted the need to compromise, adapt and scale down our expectations. Continue reading