The Struggle is Wheel:... - Financial Unions

Produced by independent radio producer Susan Dennehy, Last One on the Train provides a 26-minute window into the lives of each of the six young participants as they navigate their day-to-day in a wheelchair.

On this week's episode, listeners will meet Michael and Leona, an interabled couple who are documenting their outdoor adventures through their Instagram page, The Struggle is Wheel.

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Ahead of their episode airing, we spoke with the two to discuss everything from how they met, to how technology is changing their lives as a married couple.

As it turns out, their love story began as so many great love stories do: in the pub.

"We met on the Leinster Football Final day," Mick says of their 2011 meeting. "Well, that's what it was for me, Leona has no interest. I went to Quinn's after the match and our paths crossed."

"I just wanted a Corona*," Leona insists, laughing. "I was coming home from work on the 16 bus, my friend text me for a drink as she had missed my birthday, and I thought nothing of it; I was in a hoody and jeans. I accidentally bumped into him as he was wheeling past me, and that's how it happened."

"Leona chased me after that then," laughs Mick.

Although the couple can now be found surfing, boating, road tripping, and hiking, they insist that their grá for adventure only became possible in the last 10 years thanks to developments in technology.

"It's basically an attachment that goes onto the front of my chair," says Mick. "It turns it into a trike, and it's electrically powered, so it gets me up steep and rough terrain. I won't be going up Croagh Patrick but it gets me a lot of places!"

"It was a few years of waiting for it to come out, and also saving up for it because it is expensive," Leona adds.

As well as technology and finances, the couple are quick to note that every wheelchair user is different, and that Mick's particular perspective is that of a person with a spinal cord injury.

Overall, though, their page is about thinking bigger - and more inclusively - for all.

"It's just about understanding that wheelchair users have lives," insists Leona. "We're a regular couple doing regular things, but there is extra joy with us doing these activities because we don't take it for granted."

This passion for inclusive planning came to a head five years ago, when the couple tied the knot and went to America for their honeymoon.

"The accessibility in a three-star motel was just so far ahead of four or five-star hotels here," Mick insists. "Accessible showers, level access going into the rooms, wider doors, parking - from the get go it was there."

"Its just seamless," agrees Leona, who says that the West Coast of America, and California in particular, seemed to have wheelchair access ingrained into its design.

"One small thing was when we went to a place for watching whales," Mick adds, "and there were telescopes there for viewing, and they had a high one for someone that could stand or walk, and then they had a low access one for someone in a wheelchair.

"It's so simple and yet you would never see something being thought out like that over here."

Flying home from California, the honeymoon continued on to Co. Sligo, where the newlyweds hiked the Benbulben loop trail, and came across a stumbling block that changed everything.

"We were near the end of the trail and we came across a fallen tree on the path," Leona explains, "and I said, 'Mick, I'm going to have to lift this tree to get you under it'. That was quite scary - and also funny - but that was the moment where we took photos and thought that this could be a good eye opened for people."

"It completely stopped me in my tracks," agrees Mick. "I would have had to do the whole loop back around."

From there, The Struggle is Wheel (let the record show that the name was thought up by Leona) was born, and the two began sharing their experiences of living in Ireland as an interabled couple, whether it be amazing organisations that are getting it right, or public spaces that still need to put in the work.

"We're not TikTokers or anything like that, we're low key" Leona says, explaining that she wants the account to bring awareness to all the things wheelchair users can do, and why changes need to be made.

"Where the trails fall down is that they don't have the mentality that someone in a wheelchair would want to hike," Mick says. "Wheelchair users can do a hell of a lot of things if the infrastructure is there."

"A local park in my town was recently developed, and they made a viewing area over a river with steps up to it and no ramp," he continues. "I contacted my local council and asked how this could be possible in a brand new park.

"We go to that park [in the show], so I'm hoping that engineer might be listening to the radio and realise the great park isn't so great."

While Mick hopes that inclusive design will be taken into account off the back of the show, Leona's wish is for people to think twice before making assumptions about interabled couples.

"There's an 'aren't you great' kind of thing," she explains. "People think it's a one sided relationship, but it's not. Mick helps me just as much as I help him - that's marriage."

"But sure, I know that she's the one that's lucky to have me," her husband quips.

* Drink responsibly

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Lifestyle Living RTÉ Radio 1

The Struggle is Wheel: Meet the interabled couple adventuring around Ireland