This week on the Quingo Scooter User’s Area we wanted to look back at some of the amazing achievements of the Red Wheelies, the UK’s Mobility Scooter Formation Display Team, over a series of blog posts.
Formed 15 years ago, the group set out to raise positive awareness of MS and performed regularly at various events across the country. “The Quingo’s are our legs” Jackie used to say regularly in interviews.
Over the years the challenges of living with MS grew, but so did their ambition and lust for life and so here we would like the thank all of them for their hard work and reflect on just a couple of wonderful memories of working with them.
Don’t Stop Me Now!
Over the weekend of 14th-15th May 2011, the Quingo team joined forces with the Red Wheelies for their first ever 24 Hour Mobility Scooter Endurance Challenge.
The Kent-based group of ladies rode a 20 strong fleet of 5 wheel Quingo’s in their successful attempt to break the Guinness World Record for the longest distance covered on a mobility scooter within a 24 hour period.
The mighty challenge took place on the tarmac cycle track at Fowlmead Country Park near Deal in Kent where the Red Wheelies broke the previous world record (88.04 miles) by totalling a massive 154 miles!
Their philosophy is that they might have to accept the odd limitation, but they can and do enjoy life to the full and still determined to prove that MS does not mean Must Stop.
Red Wheelies Have Talent
Moving on to 2014 and the Red Wheelies and their Quingo Vitess’s took to the stage at London’s Hammersmith Apollo to take part in one of the UK’s most popular TV shows, Britain’s Got Talent.
With the judging panel consisting of Simon Cowell, Amanda Holden, Alicia Dixon and David Walliams looking on the ladies displayed a mix of precision manoeuvres, slick dance moves and precision driving skills, all on their mobility scooters and a very small stage.
Performing to Shania Twain’s 1997 hit ‘Man, I feel like a Woman’, the performance received rapturous applause from the live audience and was put through to next round by 3 of the 4 judges, including the all-important Simon Cowell.
Making a show such as this inevitably means a lot of hanging around and logistical challenges but we take our hats off to all the ladies who coped magnificently throughout and still managed to put on the performance of their lives.
Bowing Out
Regrettably earlier this year, we revealed that after 15 exciting years, the Red Wheelies had decided to call it a day having realised their awareness goals and raising enough funds to help rebuild their local MS Therapy Centre.
Jackie Weeden, a founding member of the Red Wheelies from the outset, spoke to us back in May: “It’s been a fun, positive few years and we’re delighted to have raised a great deal of positive awareness about MS along the way. We’ve been together as the Red Wheelies for a long time now and it was getting harder and harder to organise everything. There’s a lot of planning behind the scenes with transportation and the like and costs were rising too.
Nevertheless we feel that we managed what we set out to do. It’s always been our philosophy that you have to focus on what you can do as opposed to what you can’t do.”
The Quingo Team are thrilled and privileged to have worked with such a wonderful group of ladies and not forgetting their trusty support teams. We sincerely hope this isn’t really the end but for now we wish them well and all the best this Christmas and for the future.
In the next post, we’ll take a look at which well-known lady was made an honorary member of the Red Wheelies…
About Quingo
The Quingo Scooter range features six models to suit your needs and budget. For more information on the Quingo Scooter range, please visit our website. Alternatively, if you have any questions you can always contact us or call customer services on 01582 430 900.
Keep up to date with the latest mobility scooter advice, tips and interesting places to visit on the Quingo Scooter Users Blog. Quingo are proud to work closely with Age UK and feature regularly in local press. Connect with Quingo and keep up to date with all our latest news on Facebook and Twitter.
All Quingo Personal Mobility Vehicles are provided by Forever Active, the UK’s exclusive distributor. Forever Active is a trading name of Advantage Marketing Corporation Limited (AMC). AMC Limited is an appointed representative of First Senior Insurance Services Ltd which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. First Senior Insurance Services FSA Register number is 308478.
