Paralysed farmer using tractor chair lift to help bring in harvest
A farmer who broke his back in a car crash and spent four months in Shropshire's specialist spinal injuries unit is bringing in his first harvest after he fitted out his tractor with a chair lift.
Mathew Evans, 31, from Denbigh, North Wales, was paralysed from the chest down when the car that he was travelling in with two friends was hit by a 4x4 in August last year.
He was treated at the Midlands Centre for Spinal Injuries at Oswestry's Orthopaedic Hospital, which he still has attend for six monthly check ups.
Despite being told by doctors that he would never walk again, Mathew was determined to get back into the cab of his tractor to bring in the fruits of his labours.
Mathew, a father of one, spent four months in hospital recovering from the accident before returning home – and it was always in his mind that he would return to the fields one day to bring in the crops.
Mathew said: "I have been a farmer all my life and I just enjoyed the lifestyle so much."
"I never minded the long hours and the early starts."
Mathew, who runs the family farm, was left frustrated after he had to leave much of the manual work to his father and had to hire another worker to cope. Confined to mostly administrative tasks, he sought to find a way that he could help out more on the farm.
Mathew said: "You never think that this will happen to you but it's got to happen to someone.
"I've found it very difficult not being able to play with my son Jac and his toy tractors, it's been very frustrating."
But now, Since the arrival of his Valctra tractor, Mathew has been able to get back out in the fields making hay before the winter, thanks to a special hydraulics lift that helps him reach the driver's cab and can be operated entirely with his hands. Mathew said: "The tractor is spot on; it's given me much more independence again."
"It is great to get back to the work because previously, I wasn't doing too much. There wasn't a huge amount I could do, to be honest it ended up being admin work.
"But we have a harvest to do now and currently I am out with everyone else finishing off the brown bailing of hay in the fields.
"It's the first time that I have been able to go back out on the harvest and it's great.
"There are still things that I can't do so I have employed a young worker, but it leaves me to do what I love best, drive the tractor.
"The tractor itself is of a pretty standard design. But there is a joy stick that I can use to drive around and of course the hydraulic seat as well.
"If I need to stop suddenly, I have a big steel lever that I can pull to bring it to a quick halt."
It was only by a chance meeting that Mathew was at tractor dealer John Bownes, when he met Andrew Stubbs, a fellow farmer, who helped
develop a means for him to get back in the cab.
Andrew said: "I'm an amputee myself and I wanted to do something to help Mathew, what an incredibly brave chap.
"I started to look at how we could use hydraulics to lift him into the tractor cab and with the great help from John Bownes and the Access to Work
scheme, we were able to design this system."
Such is Mathew's joy at getting his independence back he will be acting as driver when he gets married to his girlfriend, Eleanor Lloyd, next April.
Mathew said: "Eleanor asked me to get the tractor in white, so I can use it to drive to the wedding."
