A lecturer at Coleg Llandrillo is building a mountain wheelchair so his stepdaughter can continue her adventurous activities after developing ME.

Glyn Davidson’s step daughter Ada, is an outdoor adventure activity enthusiast. She won a nation-wide competition to be junior adventurer of the year and the public face of a consortium of North Wales adventure companies.

Ada, aged 11, whose family live near Conwy, said: “Adventuring makes me feel happy, excited and proud of myself. After an adventure I feel much more confident, and much stronger than before. Whenever I finish an adventure, I am always ready for a new one”.

But last Easter Ada developed ME bringing her adventures to a sudden halt. She said: “When I woke up one morning last Easter my whole body was aching and it has been like that ever since.”

ME, or myalgic encephalomyelities, is a long term illness whose most common symptom is extreme tiredness.

Glyn said he and Ada were walking their dogs on Anglesey, when she started to suffer pain, he stated: “Her legs were so sore she was hobbling. She felt she had dislocated her hips and both her ankles. Within a couple of days, she could no longer walk because of the pain. She also started getting blinding headaches reducing her to tears, and she was too weak to sit up without support.”

He added: “To this day, I still have to carry her in and out of bed, in and out of the car, up and down the stairs. Supporting Ada through ME is physically demanding, but even more so emotionally; Seeing the change in Ada’s outlook on life, losing all interest in anything but the TV, not wanting to see her friends, and just becoming completely withdrawn has been difficult. Her passion for life that had so impressed the judges of the junior adventurer competition had gone completely”.

Glyn added: “We managed to find Ada a specialist wheelchair to help get her back into the mountains. It uses tyre and brake technology from mountain bikes, but is far from adequate. It can’t overcome the rocky terrain in the mountains.

“Left with no other choices, I started to build a motorised wheelchair and we’ve set our sights climbing to the summit of Snowdon with it.

“I started this project last September and have worked on it relentlessly ever since. In the early days, I’d sit at the computer until 2:00 am studying and designing, go to bed and wake up at 4:00 am to carry on the work.

Building this wheelchair, and providing Ada with a means to get back into the mountains will, I hope, reignite Ada’s passion for life.

Ada’s mother Nikki has been holding fairs at Bodafon Farm to try and raise money for the wheelchair, yet lack of funds is holding us back. I hope eventually the project will ultimately help thousands of others in a similar position.

Glyn has created a website which charts progress with the the wheelchair, and through which donations can be made: http://mountainwheelchair.com.