What a week! Yes, Naidex Scotland has successfully blown us all away here at bespoken and we’re far from being the only ones. Anne Walker has been a Naidex enthuisiast for a long time now, and that’s no wonder considering the impact it’s had on her life. So let’s hear from a real expert. What did she think of Scotland’s biggest independent living convention?

Meet Anne Walker

Anne is an MS sufferer and has been a Blackwood tenant for several years. She likes her Blackwood home and happily tells me that “being a Blackwood tenant has changed my life”. One of the ways in which Blackwood has helped her, she feels, was in pointing her towards Naidex.

First impressions of last week’s Naidex

“All in all I had a wonderful time” says Anne who was very impressed with the effort put in by all the exhibitors. The stalls of course were very well presented and thoughtfully designed to be wheelchair user friendly. But more than that it was the charming manner of the people that Anne greatly appreciated, “everyone was willing to talk” she says, “I got loads of information and people didn’t just hand you leaflets”.

A few favourites

Anne was especially impressed with the people from Mobility Scotland who gladly took the time to speak with her and gave her all the details she wanted. But the clincher was this, only a few days after the convention Anne received a hand written letter from Mobility Scotland with further details to let her trial one of their scooters. “It wasn’t a general letter sent to everyone; they’d clearly made an effort. I really appreciated that”.

Wiltshire Farm Foods and Oakhouse Foods were giving out free cooked samples which were widely appreciated (I include myself in that). Anne was previously sceptical about frozen foods but admits being very pleasantly surprised by both companies.

Other personal favourites of Anne included the stand of MS Society Scotland which provided her with loads of great information and had a very kind and friendly manner. She noted that “they were clearly used to speaking with MS sufferers”.

So why is Naidex so special?

             Anne sums it up in a word, “freedom”. “You have the freedom to go around at your own pace, in your own time and you sometimes see things you didn’t know were out there”. In essence, the joy of Naidex is getting to see so much without having anyone doing a ‘hard sale’. Anne mentions also the convenience of it all, “it’s all under one roof so you don’t have to go all over Scotland”.

So what could be improved on in the future?

            Well parking is the main one. Somewhat ironically (and although the convention was overwhelmingly successful) the SECC proved to be at times poorly prepared for a convention that revolved around disability. Anne is half amused, half exasperated as she recounts how her husband had to spend ages rearranging the seats in the café for her chair to squeeze in.

The only other little suggestion Anne wished to make was that some of the smaller items shown could be made available for purchase on the spot. It would be quite nice to leave at the end of the day with something to hold other than pamphlets.

At the end of the day

            “I found more than I expected. I saw what I wanted to see and more and everybody seemed to have made a great effort”. These words sum up well Anne’s feelings about last week, and she concludes our little chat with some kind words for those who put her onto Naidex in the first place, “I can’t thank Blackwood and bespoken enough”. You’re very welcome Anne.