Roasting? Try surviving a heatwave in a wheelchair...

Everyone’s talking about the heatwave.

- JAMES MOORE

Hot, isn’t it?

This week, the weather forecast has become a daily drama. Roads are melting, trains are like ovens, everyone is sleeping badly and complaining about how impossible it is to concentrate when the mercury refuses to drop. And, we’re told, it’s only going to get worse. Flaming June, indeed!

And fair enough. Heat is miserable for everyone. But there are some things about a heatwave you only really understand when you're a wheelchair user.

For most people, if they get too hot, they can get up and move about a bit. They can peel a damp shirt away from their sweaty back, stand in front of a fan, wander into the shade or stretch out on a cool patch of sofa. And, to be graphic, they can more easily get some air to their gusset.

To exercise, I normally like to go wheelchair running - my equivalent of going for a jog. But in temperatures in excess of 30 degrees, I'd been putting it off. But then I thought - what better way to remind myself of all the ways that heatwaves hit differently when you're in a chair?