Avantgarde 4 Family

Catherine from Buckinghamshire loves to stand out with bright colours to show her bubbly personality and sense of fun. She wanted a customisable wheelchair that could keep up with her social activities and enable her to live life to the full.

"Everything's going pretty well for me at the moment," Svenja beams, and you can believe every word she says. It's been five years since the young woman from Bavaria was involved in a serious traffic accident in her hometown. Svenja was 19 years old at the time and was cycling to work, just as she often did, when she was hit by a lorry as the driver turned a corner. It quickly became clear that she would need to use a wheelchair from then on, "I got used to the wheelchair very quickly, because for me the devise was a certain way back to an independent life," Svenja adds. Today, my Avantgarde and I are a good team, it goes everywhere in the car with me and is ready to use in no time when I reach my destination. Having a lightweight wheelchair that's easy to use is a great help, especially now that I'm often travelling." Svenja recently moved in with her partner, Andre, and it's important for her that they both share the housework. She's also discovered wheelchair basketball and plays in the local regional league, but Svenja's life doesn't just revolve around sports and housework, she loved animals and visiting a nearby stud farm. During visits she is not only accompanied by Andre but by their Australian Shepherd, Barney too. Svenja also likes to travel and spend weekends with her family, and she is grateful to her parents and old friends for their incredible support after her accident, "It's thanks to the support of so many lovely people, that I'm able to live such an independent life with my Avantgarde today."

Enes has had Emery-Dreifuss muscular dystrophy, ever since he was a child. Despite this - or maybe because of it - he's a fighter, and everyday he's eager to prove just how much he can still achieve. His family supports him and gives him strength. Enes can sometimes come across as shy, but he's actually very courageous and inquisitive, "I laugh a lot, I love music and I'm always trying new things. When I was a child, I always wanted to be famous."

Enes leads a very active life despite being a wheelchair user, he regularly goes to the gym and enjoys nothing more than playing wheelchair football. He's grateful for his wheelchair because he sometimes tires easily due to his muscle weakness. Despite his limitations, Enes dreams of travelling to distant countries, "I'd love to travel to the US one day; that's been my dream ever since I was a child," he says.

Enes has the Avantgarde with swing-away leg supports as it flexibility adapts to his changing requirements.

Wanda was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 2006. The diagnosis was unexpected for the mother of two, but it didn’t upend her life. “You have to accept the facts and learn to live with them!” In summer 2018 she also developed spasticity and had cortisone treatment for this again in February 2019, followed by another switch in medication shortly thereafter. But Wanda is not giving up. Her family, her garden and origami are her passions. “Origami is the perfect link between an artistic activity and MS therapy. Folding the paper so precisely hones fine motor skills. This has a positive effect on cognitive performance.” Daily gardening work with her husband Dietrich offers a balance between physical and mental activities. Wanda’s life circumstances have allowed her to be quite active so far. But in recent years it has become more and more difficult to take part in trips, therapy or other activities without assistance from others. “On longer walks, there aren’t usually many suitable places to sit down.” Wanda’s first device was an anterior walker. This was helpful on longer walks but was less suitable in the garden or indoors. In the course of her research, she discovered the Avantgarde DV. Because the strength in the hands and arms is often lost first, the weight of the wheelchair plays a crucial role. The lightest version of the Avantgarde DV weighs just 8.7 kg. This makes the wheelchair manoeuvrable and easy to drive. With a maximum load of up to 140 kg, this all-round wheelchair is especially suitable for diseases that lead to weight gain. “I’m happy that I did research on the available devices early on and wholeheartedly recommend anyone who is affected to do the same. I am still feeling fit, and learning to drive a wheelchair was a lot of fun. My husband even built a special training track for me. The Avantgarde DV is my perfect everyday device and will be for a long time to come, because it can be adapted to many different requirements.”

When you get to know Wolfgang better, you can see that he’s a man who has found his equilibrium. A husband, banker and homeowner, he also serves as the chairperson of a wheelchair sports association in Munich during his spare time. Formerly an active sportsman, he now manages the association largely from the office. “When I was 17, I had an operation. It went wrong – so when I returned to my secondary school, it was in a wheelchair,” Wolfgang
says. “Even though there was still a lot of bias in the way people treated wheelchair users at the time, I can’t recall any traumatic experiences from my school days. The headmaster did away with any possible reservations straightaway by appointing some fellow students to take turns accompanying me to the classrooms, gymnasium and schoolyard. Since the building wasn’t wheelchair-accessible, this basically meant that they also had to carry me and my wheelchair over the steps.” As one of five siblings, Wolfgang had no cause to complain about a lack of support at home, either. His final secondary school examination and a banking apprenticeship followed. The only thing missing in Wolfgang’s day-today life then was sports. His involvement in the wheelchair sports association offers a welcome change to his office work at the financial institution. Today Wolfgang is 54 years old and a firm fixture in his association as its chairman and a former active member. The variable Avantgarde DV supports Wolfgang’s extremely varied life in all respects.