Penny Roberts, the Steeton woman paralysed after a parachuting accident, needs to raise £10,000 if she is to become totally mobile again.

The money is needed to buy a special powerchair which will last a lifetime and enable her to get out and about.

Motability, which supplies motor vehicles to the disabled, say quadraplegic Penny, who is pregnant, can then have a new £20,000 specially adapted vehicle - but only if she is able to get the new powerchair.

The firm says that her current chair is too light to clamp into the vehicle and that it is not suitable for driving.

"I can also only push my chair on flat areas, but there are not many round this district," says the 35-year-old former nurse who is confined to a wheelchair after her parachutes tangled and she free-fell from 13,000 feet. "Wheelchair services at Airedale Hos-pital are limited to what they can provide, but they say they will give me a voucher towards of the cost of the powerchair."

Because of her pregnancy Penny, who still teaches and lectures, says her own chair is becoming very uncomfortable. "I would be able to adjust the seating position of the new chair," she says.

The £10,000 powerchair is made by Balder (UK) Ltd in Berkshire. It is controlled by a joystick and has a touch control panel for easy use. The seat also has an electrically operated height control.

Penny was parachuting over Florida when her main and emergency chutes became tangled. Her neck, back, shoulder, pelvis and leg were broken in the fall, and she suffered a collapsed lung and a fractured skull. She lives in her specially-adapted home at Steeton.

"Without the chair I cannot get the vehicle," she says. "If I don't get the vehicle then I am stuck in the house."

Her problems are made worse by the fact that other forms of transport are limited. She has to give the local dial-a-ride scheme two days' notice if she wants to go anywhere, and there is only one taxi in the whole of Keighley which can accommodate a wheelchair.

Penny recently visited the Motability test centre in Berkshire where she tested a number of vehicles. She also had to sit a special driving test. "It was strange sitting the test," she says jokingly. "Even though it is three years since my accident I kept wanting to put my feet on the pedals."

Now Penny is writing to local companies and organisations to see if they can help. Anyone who may be able to help should ring Penny on 658797.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.