I'm Jean and I'm 73 and I live in a Housing New Zealand pensioner village complex in Avondale. I have lived here since 1991, and I like it here. I've good neighbours and good access to things in my community. I use my mobility scooter to do my shopping, go to church and go to the local senior citizens' weekly meetings. I go on their outings when it's physically possible, and attend their social events.

I've taken my scooters on trains and on the ferries, although on one memorable train trip I ran into trouble. I took the train to Henderson but when I set out to come back the train manager wouldn't let me on the train with my scooter. I had to get the local taxi company to take me home. However, the taxi hoist could not take me and the scooter, we were too heavy. So it took the scooter, and I had to slide onto the taxi-van's floor as best I could and I came home sort of lying on the taxi-van floor. I don't think that's legal but at least I got home, although I ended up in bed in pain for two days. I got an apology from the train company and a letter I keep with me saying the trains do take scooters.

As a six-year-old in 1938 I got scarlet fever and it affected by my bones and I got multi-functional osteomyelitis. There were no antibiotics to deal with the open abscesses in my bones. They were just drained and some were packed with maggots. I was in a plaster cast from the chest down for about two years. The scarlet fever affected the bones in my ear so then, and later, I lost a lot of hearing. I compensate for that by lip reading. I was fitted with hearing aids in 1950. When I came out of hospital I was sent to the Wilson Home for Crippled Children. I spent a lot of time away from my family, a lot of time in hospital having surgery. My parents lost count of my surgeries, but it was at least 50 before I was aged 35. As I've had a bad car accident and cancer since then I've added to that number.

I got to go to intermediate school - CCS sent me there and back in a taxi. I remember that as a good time, I was just another kid. In the fifth form I left school for ear surgery and never went back. After that I worked in a CCS workshop, but they saw I was ready to do more and they sent me to Auckland Business College for shorthand and typing.

The shorthand was tough with my hearing problems but I was good at the typing. I got an office job and was there for 10 years.

I found out later that my family were told I would not live to 20, and that I would never marry and never have children. Well, in 1963 I got married and later had a child. I was a mum to one child of my own and to three grown-up step-children and now I'm a grand-mum!

My dear husband Cliff was 22 years older than me. He was a commercial photographer who was awarded an MBE for his work with IHC people. On one of my stays in hospital I was nursed by a lovely nurse Joan. Through her I connected with her brother Alan, who was my age. He had a car, and we had some lovely times out and about. When Alan married a Great Barrier Island girl, Grace, and had a baby daughter they did a bit of match making. They arranged for Alan's dad Cliff, who was then a widower, to escort me to Great Barrier Island for a holiday. Great Barrier Island is a very romantic place and we fell in love and married later that year, with Alan as best man and Joan as my bridesmaid.

I was a mum on crutches. When my son Kevin was a baby I had it all worked out. I had a modified old-fashioned dinner wagon and when I needed to move him around I put him on that and pushed him from bed to kitchen etc. My son has never seen me as disabled, and now at age 40 he still sees me as just Mum. Cliff my wonderful husband, the light of my life, died in 1989.

As I have got older my bone problems have got worse. I have osteoarthritis in most of my joints. Years of using crutches have damaged my shoulders. Unfortunately a car accident in 1993 put me back in a leg plaster for another eight months. I now have home care; a great lady comes in every morning to help me with a shower. She does my housework and washing. I do feel the home carers are so underpaid for what they offer. I cook my meals, but the weekend without assistance is a bit of struggle. I have my scooter, and both a manual and an electric wheelchair.

People in wheelchairs acknowledge that finding toilets they can use can cause both distress and laughter. For us, of course, toilets on planes are impossible, and toilets on trains are often not much better. There is a mid-city McDonald's that used to indicate it had a toilet for the disabled, but unfortunately there were four steps between the door and the toilet.

Heavy doors, doors that open outwards into busy corridors so you can knock over unsuspecting passers by and toilet paper not reachable from the toilet are rather too common experiences in disabled toilets.

When you are in a new area, finding a toilet for the disabled can be like finding gold. On a day trip up north I found one but the door would not shut and I had to leave it wide open. One small problem, the toilet faced straight onto the main street full of people. Some new ones have lovely electric operating doors, but I do wonder about a power cut and have been known to hum the song 'three old ladies got locked in the lavatory' while visiting them.

I really value my independence. Since 1990 a big thing in my life is my visits to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital (now called QE Health) in Rotorua. The combined physiotherapy and occupational therapy plus the mineral baths etc have been the major things keeping me mobile. It would be a shame if this opportunity for treatment at QE Health was to stop as I remain in the community largely owing to the input of QE Health.

"I value my independence and just want access to the services that will help me to retain my independence and my ability to participate in my community. I like to get out and about as I believe life is for living."

Two years ago my electric wheelchair had its seat changed. The new seat is very uncomfortable for me. My occupational therapist has written to our service provider about it, but I've been waiting for it to be fixed for over two years. Over time working with some providers I've noticed that we get regular letters from a provider inviting us to contact a named person if we want to talk about ongoing issues. You phone repeatedly but they are never available and never respond to messages you leave.

My OT is concerned that I have to use a strap and physically lift my legs up onto my chairs or scooters. She can see this is aggravating my shoulders. She wants me to try powered leg lifters. I have waited two years for an assessment to see if I could use them, let alone be on a waiting list to have them fitted. I try hard to get the help I need to be independent but they just say it's a shortage of therapists and you have to wait your turn.

I think that by the time that happens you're going to be much worse off and need more care and equipment. It is not good money sense to me.

Being mobile means being independent - it's my way of staying active in the community and not being forced into a rest home situation that I'm not ready for yet.