Case study 4
INPUT UPDATE by Nancy Hands

Years fly by, but it is really good to look back sometimes and see how achievements build up! I left INPUT in December 1989 and a year hasn’t passed since, without managing something new.

In 2000, I realized a long-held ambition of joining a Sports club. An ‘Esporta’ was built, within 10 minutes walk from home, so I literally took the plunge! To start with, I swam almost every day (something I have always loved), but was terrified of actually going into the gym. Using INPUT tactics of talking myself through the fear of something usually being worse than the reality, I braved it one day and happened to meet a wonderful gym instructor, whose main interest was people with peculiar problems! I was able to explain to her where I was coming from – with which she was very much in tune- and she devised a program for me on INPUT lines i.e. beginning with 1 repetition of an exercise, or 10 secs etc. I have a review every 6-12 weeks and change or extend the program as necessary. I do a number of Pilates - type floor exercises, which are very strengthening and use machines I would never have dreamt I would go near! On the ‘leg press’, which I could not budge the first time I tried, I now do 15 repetitions of 16Kg!

On holiday in Slovenia in 1999, I climbed up to the Savrica waterfall, which was advertised ‘not for those with walking difficulties’ (that was an invitation!!) : 800 metres above the lake we started from, and 500 steps to the top. That was a eureka moment – and I came down again unaided!! In Hungary two years later, my husband Nigel and I trekked from our hotel in Balatonfured to Tihany village (on the top of a hill on a peninsula), using a bus, tourist train, boat and including a three-mile walk! Having had major walking difficulties and transport phobias that was something of a momentous day! In Paris in 2002, I walked from the Gare du Nord to Montmartre and up all the steps to the Sacre-Coeur – and back again - the day we arrived! The day we decided to go up l’ Arc de Triomphe, the lift for the last level was not working, so I climbed up all those steps as well! Worth it, definitely!

In July 2003, our younger daughter Alison (25) got married in Cambridge, just before my 50th birthday. We walked from the church to St John’s College, for a champagne reception on The Backs (standing for about an hour and a half!), then inside for a buffet. It was a wonderful day, not least because I managed it with ease and thorough enjoyment. One of the patients who was in my group was among the guests and he managed brilliantly too – despite the intense heat!

I continue to work 3 mornings a week at the same Primary School (a 20 minute bus journey away) and with Court sittings (a 10-minute train journey and 10 minute uphill walk), which have become more frequent as I become more senior on the Bench!

I still have set-backs and over-do things occasionally, but because I am fit and don’t catastrophise any longer, I recover fairly quickly. I put my energy and focus on what I can do and the next small step in front of me.

Nancy Hands, attended INPUT in 1989