This one has sat in drafts for a long time, it’s taken a snow day for me to thrash it out and publish; enjoy.

Learning

Like most late teens in the uk I applied for my provisional licence aged 17 and started lessons funded by my parents. It was however a slow process. Multiple tests before I passed too.

I bought my own first car aged 18 it wasn’t anything special but it trundled me to work and back and gave me freedom, on reflection, the car was rubbish (to go uphill the air con couldn’t be on) but it lasted me a few years. I further got a small Japanese 3 door while with Rich that was still slightly bigger than his car so became our primary vehicle.

I was a good driver: calm, logical and confident. Rich has always found driving stressful so for most of our relationship I’ve been the driver and him navigator and we’ve certainly put some miles in over the years.

As my car was slowly becoming an issue my mum donated an old car of hers that was similar in size which was fine as a car but it never gave me a joy.

Around this time was when I joined my current employer, in my team everyone had expensive, premium cars a through a heavily discounted work scheme. I joined up getting a big Mercedes which was completely unnecessary but fun to drive and I loved the prestige with it.

3 years on and it was time to return the merc , with carte Blanche choice I decided to order something premium, cool, a bit different and very “Ben” and selected a Cupra Formentor, a car new to the uk market, petrol hybrid as it seemed logical to me to run on electric for commutes and have petrol for longer drives.i ordered this in 2021. It was delayed, delayed and delayed again up to 2023 when it was delivered in April. It was everything I wanted and more, fun to drive, economical, full of tech and looked amazing

I had 5 weeks of driving it before the stroke. Though Rich drove it for a long time afterwards.

I remember sitting in my hospital bed in hospital 3 thinking i would never drive again and the limitations that implied: how would i get to work? How do we go out? Would i be relying on other people as a burden for life?

One of my OTs assured me many people had gone before me and it might not be the same but I would drive again.

After coming home one of the OTs linked me with a local disabled driving centre.

I gave up the cupra as it was expensive and a tease that I couldn’t drive it. Rich continued to drive it until it went as it was big, lovely and fun to drive

After waiting months for an assessment in late 2023 I began pushing the driving centre to help.

I got a provisional date of February 2024 for an assessment which timed nicely with a planned work return in march. After putting research in and not wanting to be stuck waiting for a car delivery (plus knowing I was entitled to a car on the government motorbility scheme) I decided to pre empt the assessment and order a car; if I didn’t get my license back Rich could drive it.

We spent that weird week between Christmas and new year driving to car show rooms. The first choice had a huge build and delivery time. My second choice car was a small electric Peugeot, I wanted a small car to start driving again, feeling anxious. Electric made sense to me as I didn’t plan on any long drives and on enquiry it was 9 week delivery. I ordered there and then aware I’d likely have to update my order for any adaptions, assured it was no issue.

Suddenly it was February and assessment time, I had no idea how it would go. I had my assessment on a Wednesday afternoon. The morning I went to disabled gym group with dad as usual on a Wednesday. As I left the same car as I had ordered pulled up with a young man getting out. I gently asked to look at his car explaining I was due my assessment that afternoon and ordered the same , he kindly showed me his adaptations that meant he didn’t need go use pedals. He wished me luck as I left.

After a lunch with my dad we drove to the assessment centre where I was incredibly nervous; it was all new and felt very important with work seemingly hinging on it.

I was taken to an interview room where some driving history, physical movement demonstrations and a cognitive assessment completed by a driving instructor and OT. We then went to a car where I was shown a variety of driving adaptations. From research I had worked out I’d be fine with pedals on an automatic but secondary hand controls (indicators, wipers etc) would need adjusting.

The instructor was achap named Dave and quickly set me up a lollipop/ joystick that attached to the wheel was comfortable to hold it had buttons for the above functions and more. When he told me to drive out of the car park I did have a slight twinge of panic; it felt weird, I didn’t like it, but focused on the importance of doing it What followed was a 45 minute drive around the area near the centre, some manoeuvres, different speeds, roundabouts, etc etc. what was nice was Dave and the OT were very personable. It eventually felt very natural to be driving and chatting. I did slightly knock a curb at one point and thought I’d ruined my chances but on return to the centre I was told I’d passed the assessment, I’d need the same adaption joystick fitting to my new car and a few hours consolidation with the joystick before they would send the Driving authority a letter confirming I was ok to drive with the adaptions.

The consolidation hours had to be with the exact same joystick, with a specialist instructor, they gave me a link to find these instructors, my local one happened to be Dave the assessor which was some great serendipity; I liked him, we’d built up a nice rapport, he knew exactly what I needed and I wasn’t having to tell my story again with someone new yet again

I did the few hours with Dave, the sessions flew by, we had a lot in common and he was a nice guy, we did dry runs to my work, local shops etc to give me some familiarity.

I’d organised adaptions of the joystick to be installed on the car so at the end of Feb when we went to collect the car it was ready for me to drive straight out of the showroom. Perfect.

It’s a cute car, possibly a bit on the small side, but just goes. The tech is pretty good, it’s not the cupra but it’s fine for what it is.