After watching the English beat the Hun on a smallish tablet in a Pizza Express, followed by seeing Romeo n Juliet at Regent’s Park open air theatre… as I commenced by trip back home, my friend Nicola said ‘ hang on, something has fallen off your chair’.

Now had my front wheel ( there are 2 small wheels at the front of every wheelchair ) fallen off 30 seconds later, then I’d have been 1/ alone and 2/ I’d not have realised it.. and this problem would have been a very large one.
As it was, Nicola found the wheel, and also the little axle. What was missing was the bolt that held the wheel on, that having been the bolt that had worked loose and come off.

With my triride on, the front wheels are off the ground, so it’s not a problem, but obviously I have to get the triride off once home, and then I’m missing a wheel… and cars/ wheelchairs don’t go very far on 3 wheels.
I managed to find in my toolbox a bolt though- I have an awful lot of bolts…. but literally ONE of the correct width – an M6 ( that’s 6mm calibre ). What I need is a 16mm length, but the one I had was 40 mm long.
Anyway from a lying down position in bed I managed to get my wheel back on my chair. Tbh I’ve never had a ‘ help ‘ that can do anything at all practical, so I’m really all by myself in this situation, and thankfully I’m pretty resourceful…

As the bolt is sticking out way too far, it’s not ideal, and will get snagged on stuff for sure, but I’ve been online and found M6 16mm bolts at Screwfix. My help, Gorana, is currently collecting a box of 20 …

If I wasn’t reasonably adept, as many aren’t, id be on the phone to a wheelchair company, and they’d be charging me £200 to come out in 3 days to put my wheel back on… but for £3.50 I’ll soon have solved the problem.

I could have done without the drama to be honest 🤦‍♂️