Bruce Boats, part of the Kennet & Avon Canal Trust, has four wheelchair-accessible widebeam canal boats available for self-drive holiday hire or crewed day trips from its base at Great Bedwyn in Wiltshire. Ali Cannon has been their Chair for just over a year. She explains how she first got involved:
I discovered accessible boating in 2012. My dad had had a stroke at a comparatively young age, and although at first it didn’t stop him doing things, he quickly became less mobile. He had enjoyed hotel boating on the Continent, but the travel – and sharing a boat with strangers – was becoming more difficult. So one day, early in 2012, mum rang to ask if I had any ideas for a UK-based holiday which might do instead.
Although I have no idea how I knew, but I said I was sure there were boats we could hire just for ourselves which would accommodate his wheelchair, and I would look into it. I discovered the Bruce Wake Trust on the River Severn, and we booked a holiday. (Sadly these boats are no longer available.)
I had never been on a canal boat before. My sister had – and she had also recently witnessed me trying (and failing) to reverse her car. When she heard that I planned to be in charge of a 70ft narrowboat for a week, her jaw hit the floor and she said “You’ll never drive a thing like that!” I have spent the last 12 years proving her wrong.
Our holiday on the River Severn was an unqualified success. I was perhaps fortunate that my first attempt at steering was on the wide waters of the river, where there was no danger of hitting the banks while I was getting used to the tiller. The locks and, on the Gloucester & Sharpness Canal, the swing bridges, were all manned for us. The weather was beautiful, and the herons out in abundance.
We discovered riverside pubs that not only had moorings at the end of their gardens, but were happy for us to eat on the boat. My dad could enjoy a pub meal without the discomfort of disembarking and travelling across rough ground in his wheelchair. The boat was also able to accommodate his mobility scooter, so when we reached the road that led to Slimbridge Wetland Centre, he was able to enjoy time ashore.
Now we had the boating bug, we were keen to try other waterways. Two beautiful holidays followed on the Accessible Boating Association’s Madam Butterfly on the Basingstoke Canal, and others across the country on boats which no longer exist. Dad celebrated his 80th birthday on one of the Bruce Boats on the Kennet & Avon Canal. By this time he had added vascular dementia to his list of ailments, but boating was the one thing guaranteed to keep his interest.
We managed one final holiday before he moved into a care home. A week on Madam Butterfly, revisiting favourite places on the Basingstoke Canal. By this time, Dad struggled to put two words together, and we thought he had lost the capacity for proper speech. But after just a few days on the canal, he suddenly started talking again – and not just in sentences, but in whole paragraphs. He told us stories from his youth; he was like a different person. It was a remarkable time which none of us will ever forget.
My dad died in January 2024. But, as Chair of Bruce Boats, I now facilitate others experiencing such life-enhancing times, creating memories with family or friends that will last for ever. Recently, a small group of friends hired one of our boats, including one who had had a stroke. Afterwards, they wrote: “By the end, our friend had really improved and we saw a lot more of our old friend from before he had his stroke.”
I knew what they meant.
