Disabled woman may have to take bus to wedding
A woman has said being unable to have her dream wedding as a result of her disability is āreally upsettingā.
Due to transport issues, Sarah Tunnicliffe, 41, may have to travel 40 minutes in her wheelchair to her big day, wearing her dress, or use a public bus.
She said the lack of availability of accessible wedding cars and the cost of renting wheelchair friendly vehicles meant she was stuck.
Sarah was diagnosed with limb-girdle muscular dystrophy, a progressive muscle disease, when she was 16 years old, and lost the ability to walk in her late 30s.
āItās sad. Itās disappointing. Itās just mentally exhaustingā¦ constant problem solving all the time,ā said Sarah, from Cardiff.
After her diagnosis, she said her main goal, at just 16, was to get married before she was no longer able to walk.
āIt was really important to meā¦ as time went on I thought āwell this is going to get harder and harderā,ā she said.
āDreams of walking down the aisleā
In her early 30s, when a number of falls and broken bones meant she had to purchase her first wheelchair, she ruled out ever tying the knot.
āI said āthatās it, Iām not getting married nowā,ā she said.
āIāve had all these dreams about the big white flowy dress, walking down the aisle arm in arm with my fatherā¦ I was adamant.ā
However, after a proposal from her fiance Jamie two years ago, she had a change of heart, but has encountered several problems since.
As for transport to her wedding, Sarah said the two best options for her ā with her wedding only a month away ā is travelling the 40-minute journey in her chair and wedding dress ā or taking a public bus.
āSeveral ideas have been floated about how I could get there ā but the legalities of traveling down Newport Road (in Cardiff to the venue) on the back of a tractor trailer I think are questionable,ā she joked.
She said her initial plan was to drive herself in her own accessible vehicle, although she had to sell it a few years ago for financial reasons.
However, she said she has found next to no accessible wedding vehicles, with her only option being renting a general accessible vehicle for a minimum of three days for about Ā£600 ā for just the 10-minute drive.
āThereās just been so many times where Iāve been let down [with previous rentals]ā¦ I just donāt want that disappointment on my wedding day,ā she said.
āIād rather either go on my chair, but everyone says āyou canāt do thatāā¦ or the bus, itās about 14 minutes so itās not that bad.ā
Sarah said these are problems that happen every day for wheelchair users, whether itās her attempting to get to a hospital appointment or taking her pet to the vet.
āI accept things on a day to day basis, things are challengingā¦ [but] I thought the wedding day would be different,ā she said.
She said another thing she dreamed of was a child was going out with a group of friends to try on wedding dresses.
āThatās just not going to happen for me,ā she said.
āIn some ways that is really upsettingā¦ it was something that I always dreamed of.ā
She said a majority of bridal shops are either upstairs, have stairs or are quite small and āboutiqueyā.
āMy chair is quite big and bulky, but equally, I canāt stand anymore, so I canāt āstep into a dressā,ā she said.
āI know that planning a wedding is not supposed to be easy and plain sailingā¦ but Iām so tired. Itās so disheartening.
āThereās certain things that Iāve not done because I donāt have the energy to spend in it, like getting a cake.ā
āNothingās gonna stop meā
However, despite the challenges, Sarah said she is certain she is going to have the āmost amazingā day.
She said after realising āI canāt have the dress, Iām not having the carā, the main thing for her was the venue, which she secured in Cardiffās Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama.
āAt least it can be set in a beautiful placeā¦ I love dancing, so Iāve got my DJ, and Iāve got a venue, and Iāve got food,ā she said.
āI love [Jamie] to bitsā¦ and I just want to celebrate that with him and everybody else.
āNothingās gonna stop me. Nothingās going to put a downer on it.ā