Mountain lions
Stephanie Crawshaw likes risk and adventure. Her father Andy tells Jo Adshead about a skiing trip to Austria 
In February, Stephanie Crawshaw set off for Niederau, a small, picturesque Austrian resort, to try out a real ski experience like thousands of other people.
Accompanied by her father Andy and two of her support staff, she was part of a group of nine people with a variety of additional needs. Disabled skiing and snowboarding, now known as adaptive snowsports, have become more common in recent years. Skiing was the obvious choice for this action-loving pair to enable some much needed father/daughter time out. Stephanie is definitely her father’s daughter.
Andrew Crawshaw has taken part in sport for most of his life, competing at national levels in cycling and road race cyling in his 20s. It has always been evident that, although she uses a wheelchair, communicates without using words and has very complex healthcare needs, Stephanie enjoys the outdoors with her dad and is something of a thrill seeker, enjoying the feel of the outdoors and the stimulation of faster action spots.
Stephanie has for some years enjoyed skiing at the Manchester’s Chill Factore centre not far from her home in Euxton in Lancashire, where she is supported by a team from Linkability, a Lancashire support organisation. Welcomed by the staff from Chill Factore, her team have supported her to use the indoor snow slope. Andy recalls:
“Her face told me everything. She has no fear and she loved carving down the slopes in the sit ski [a wheelchair-type device that tilts and slides with a ski instructor holding the chair]. I am able to ski alongside her so this is something we can do together, which is just amazing.”
Andy used GoFundMe to raise funds for the trip and, within a month, had hit the £1,600 target from around 30 people. The total cost with Disability Snow UK was around £4,000. “Their attention to detail was excellent and they made certain everyone had a great time,” he says. DSUK has paid instructors, and each person has a volunteer helper who pays a lower amount. The trip was always going to be a challenge – pushing a wheelchair around a snowy village is hard. The skiing session was moved from morning to afternoon so Stephanie would be fully alert and enjoy it.
The airports provided easy access for the group, who first met up at Gatwick. DSUK used its own bus for the transfers and to take the skiers to the gondola. Andy says: “Clearly, she enjoyed everything about being out and about, enjoying new experiences. She loves being with people. The Linkability support staff, Katy and Christina, made the trip so much easier for me and Steph to have a good time. They both did a fantastic job of looking after Steph day and night.”
At the ski lift, a rope is attached to the sit-ski from both the button and the T lifts, so works like it would for an able-bodied person. The sit-ski is lifted on and off the bigger gondola. People of all abilities can enjoy just about all the mountain. “We did some apres-ski including a horse-drawn carriage ride in the snow and some social time with the group in the evenings, although Steph does like an early night just like her dad now,” says Andy. “As a dad, I simply had an amazing time with my daughter doing something very much together, enjoying both the mountains and fresh air and spending time with a group of like-minded people.”
Jo Adshead is chief executive of Linkability: www.linkability.org.uk
