Speaker 1: Now.
Speaker 2: Today's on the Couch interview is a reminder of two
Speaker 2: things really, firstly of how life can change in an
Speaker 2: instant but secondly of how one can find a way
Speaker 2: to make a contribution even in the face of massive obstacles.
Speaker 2: With me on the line is Villy Lawrence, who is
Speaker 2: a former truck salesman whose life was turned upside down
Speaker 2: by a motorbike accident not quite two years ago. Despite
Speaker 2: facing massive physical and financial challenges, Really decided to build
Speaker 2: something positive out of his experience. He turned his own
Speaker 2: mechanical knowledge and sales expertise into a nonprofit which benefits
Speaker 2: others like him who have suffered compromised mobility and who
Speaker 2: need to have their sense of freedom and dignity and
Speaker 2: independence restored to them. It's a huge pleasure to have
Speaker 2: Really with us on the line to tell us his
Speaker 2: own story, but also how that nonprofit is going. Villy Lawrence,
Speaker 2: Welcome to KEP Talk.
Speaker 1: Thank you very much. I'm delighted to be there.
Speaker 2: Thank you. Really, before let's talk about your life before
Speaker 2: the accident. Before we get to how everything changed, just
Speaker 2: tell us a little bit about yourself and what you
Speaker 2: were doing before the day that changed everything.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I've been a King Baker all my life. And yeah,
Speaker 1: I came to cap Down about six years ago and
Speaker 1: then I started doing the park rounds. We went Highking
Speaker 1: and yeah, I was a very active man. But all
Speaker 1: my life I've been a motorcyclist and I've been riding
Speaker 1: for forty two years as a license.
Speaker 2: Okay, And you were working as a truck salesman, is
Speaker 2: that correct?
Speaker 1: Yes, I was starting for power store and if I
Speaker 1: w in Nepal. Yeah, I was also instructor drivers to
Speaker 1: take the new drivers on courses so that they can
Speaker 1: then to drive truck.
Speaker 2: Okay, So a job which was very hands on, and
Speaker 2: I'm saying that very deliberately, as listeners will understand in
Speaker 2: a moment, because everything about your life was changed on
Speaker 2: the twenty sixth of November twenty twenty three. Willie tell
Speaker 2: us what happened that day?
Speaker 1: Yeah, that was a terrible day for me. It started
Speaker 1: off as a very beautiful day. It was a day
Speaker 1: off the toy and yeah, Krone and that's the Biggause
Speaker 1: get together called a cyclist in the country, Yes, and
Speaker 1: I'll stay in So I decidedle I'm not going to
Speaker 1: just take this short right so I wanted to to
Speaker 1: take a Suni route and get some guys on the
Speaker 1: way back. And on my way just before monstery On
Speaker 1: in seven, I saw people overtaking her car on the
Speaker 1: left hand side because she was traveling quite slowly in
Speaker 1: the fast lane, and I moved in next to him,
Speaker 1: and he deliberately pushed me off the road and I
Speaker 1: went into the barrier, and it was immediate amputation. Smart
Speaker 1: sure I came up and while they came off right
Speaker 1: on the scene. And yeah, I don't know how they
Speaker 1: got to me so quickly, because also that say I
Speaker 1: should have read to death.
Speaker 2: It's an astonishing thing, really, I mean appalling injuries like that.
Speaker 2: To have survived at all is amazing. But the circumstances
Speaker 2: of how that happened. Were you ever able to track
Speaker 2: down the driver who caused those injuries? Was there any
Speaker 2: kind of consequence for that person?
Speaker 1: Not at all? You know before what they say they
Speaker 1: especially on that piece of road, they've got scouts on
Speaker 1: the side of the road, and then the guys in
Speaker 1: the car. They travel and they look for soft targets
Speaker 1: like a guy alone on a motorbile, all women tunning
Speaker 1: on a car or a young girl driving a newly
Speaker 1: bought car, and then fortune off the road and the
Speaker 1: guys on the side roped them. Sure, and that's exactly
Speaker 1: what happened to me at all. Down They were right day,
Speaker 1: right there and then, and they grabbed everything that they
Speaker 1: could want, money out of more pockets, and they tried everything,
Speaker 1: and yeah, the card just got away.
Speaker 2: That's absolutely appalling. Oh really, I mean to be lying
Speaker 2: there fighting for your life and then have that happen
Speaker 2: to you. I can't even begin to imagine. It's just
Speaker 2: absolutely sickening to hear that. But this miraculous survival really
Speaker 2: obviously at a huge cost. The loss of an arm
Speaker 2: and a leg, that is a loss that changes your
Speaker 2: ability to do everything in life, to navigate your job,
Speaker 2: to navigate looking after yourself at home, your mobility, and
Speaker 2: your ability to lead the life that you led before.
Speaker 2: Tell us a little bit about the immediate sort of
Speaker 2: recovery period and what you faced as you came to
Speaker 2: terms with those injuries.
Speaker 1: Well, as I woke up, are just so, well, I
Speaker 1: don't have an armorer, I don't have a leg anymore.
Speaker 1: And yeah, I've been an entrepreneur all my life, so
Speaker 1: I've most of the time, I was working for myself
Speaker 1: my life, and I didn't look well well after my
Speaker 1: old age. So I was worried straight away, Yo, how
Speaker 1: am I going to work for the next ten years
Speaker 1: or so? And that's when I decided, well, yeah, I
Speaker 1: have to make a plan. And while my ideas was
Speaker 1: running out, I didn't know how to do it. But
Speaker 1: then I bought a mobility scooter for myself after I
Speaker 1: got a and that just just changed my world because I,
Speaker 1: you know, you know, wheel chair, I can't even pushed
Speaker 1: myself with only a left and you just go in circles.
Speaker 1: And yeah, so I was, yo, you don't you don't
Speaker 1: know what it goes like. But then when I got
Speaker 1: to scooter, everything changed, and I said to my key giver,
Speaker 1: I was fortunate to have a key giver. She looked
Speaker 1: after my mother until she passed, and then, as I say,
Speaker 1: I organized their job, so she's looking she's actually still
Speaker 1: looking after me because it's a lot of things that
Speaker 1: are a lot of things that are still can't do
Speaker 1: for myself. But then I say to your well, this
Speaker 1: is what I'm going to do. I'm going to help
Speaker 1: people get the scooters and make a plan to just
Speaker 1: get people going after accident. You know, it's so easy
Speaker 1: to go into depression and you really don't know how
Speaker 1: to get out of that depression. You need something to
Speaker 1: pick you up. And Manderlord Mobility scooter picked me up.
Speaker 1: But everybody is not fortunate to have thirty thousand and
Speaker 1: ran to go and buy a scooter. And so first
Speaker 1: of all, I became an agent for Indiarra mobility products
Speaker 1: and I'm selling the they will chase and mobility scooters
Speaker 1: and all the mobility aids and and also but ye see,
Speaker 1: when the people happened going to an accident, it is
Speaker 1: very very difficult for them to just quickly take out
Speaker 1: the teachers and learn to buy a scout or something.
Speaker 1: And that's the idea of the nonprofit came from because
Speaker 1: I need to sell this. The scooters disurvived. That's why
Speaker 1: brand and butter and that's why we started as in
Speaker 1: PC to to bark from me. If we see somebody
Speaker 1: using difficulty, especially bikers, but everybody else using difficulty, we
Speaker 1: try and help him with a mobility scouter or a
Speaker 1: wheel chair or crutch or even a date for the time.
Speaker 1: Immediately our thinkue it's how we are a hospital and
Speaker 1: that's what we got to do. We start doing fundraisers.
Speaker 1: We did our first Rightful Mobility rap up for Recovery
Speaker 1: motorcycle run and we added that one hundred bucks that
Speaker 1: came together and we all travel everybody both T shirts
Speaker 1: and badges, and you know, we might have got twelve
Speaker 1: thousand grand on that day. Then we got two pool
Speaker 1: days or what, well, let's day at Stations club, Well,
Speaker 1: let's stub and they we get the people to come
Speaker 1: and play competitive pull and when some magic process we
Speaker 1: get sponsored process and that's how we get our money in.
Speaker 1: But we're not really making money yet, but we're working
Speaker 1: on that. And that's what the thing Actors is giving
Speaker 1: me the opportunity to can to do is to tell
Speaker 1: the people people. So if you want to contribute towards
Speaker 1: this NPC, we've got a bank account that you can
Speaker 1: find some money in or just give me a call.
Speaker 1: I'll give you my son. And that's the easiest way
Speaker 1: because I don't have everything on me at the moment,
Speaker 1: the banking details and so on. And support us. We
Speaker 1: also in the crisis says of getting the eighteen form
Speaker 1: that you can do, that we can you can deduct
Speaker 1: toward contribution of your text that we don't have in place.
Speaker 1: It as you know about this is a very new company.
Speaker 1: I had by accident now seventeen months ago, so it's
Speaker 1: a very new thing. But we're going from strengths strings.
Speaker 2: I'm so glad to hear it, Philly. And you've called
Speaker 2: it mobility for freedom. Is that correct?
Speaker 1: Mobility for feedram dot or o RG.
Speaker 2: Okay, So somebody wants to find your Facebook page or
Speaker 2: your website, they're searching for Mobility for Freedom NPC, a
Speaker 2: registered nonprofit in the process of getting all the ducks
Speaker 2: in a row for Section eighteen tax deductible forms. But
Speaker 2: most importantly, Revilly is to spread the word that this
Speaker 2: is the vision of being able to help those who
Speaker 2: are not fortunate enough to be able to help themselves
Speaker 2: because it is so expensive to buy these aids. I mean,
Speaker 2: you've spoken about how that mobility scooter was the light
Speaker 2: that helped pull you out of depression and pick you
Speaker 2: up to find the courage to go forward. Billy, What
Speaker 2: does it enable you to do that you weren't able
Speaker 2: to do before? Can we maybe just give a couple
Speaker 2: of practical examples?
Speaker 1: Oh? Yes, you know I started doing a park round.
Speaker 1: It was really very much fun for me to parkround,
Speaker 1: to hike, to hide motobiks, and yes, as I said,
Speaker 1: motorbikes is my life. I've been riding all my life.
Speaker 1: And yeah, all those things just was just taken away.
Speaker 1: I can't go and walk on the beach anymore. I
Speaker 1: can't go and put my feet in the water. There's
Speaker 1: a lot of things that I can't do. But our
Speaker 1: by pieces that that is such just something that you
Speaker 1: have to work through. And the thing makes with the
Speaker 1: mobility Aid, it gives you the freedom to go and
Speaker 1: drive on the pier or drive on the pavement. Even
Speaker 1: though you can't walk or run or anything, you can
Speaker 1: still do participate in things. If you've got an eight
Speaker 1: even if it's a normal wheelchair, if you can't even
Speaker 1: electrical thing, even normal wheelchair, to put somebody in and
Speaker 1: go and go for a walk, go and sit up
Speaker 1: setting right here next to you see at the moment,
Speaker 1: looking at the waves, and that gives that gives you
Speaker 1: the freedom to feel I'm still alive. I'm still alive,
Speaker 1: and that makes all the difference.
Speaker 2: I'm so delighted that that freedom has been blessed to
Speaker 2: you villian, that you've made the effort to try and
Speaker 2: share that with others who are in a similar position.
Speaker 2: We wish you the best of luck. I hope that
Speaker 2: this interview might spark some interest from potential donors and
Speaker 2: at least get people to keep an eye on your
Speaker 2: Facebook page for news on future fundraising events, etc. If
Speaker 2: they'd like to support this work. Most of although, we
Speaker 2: wish you all the best. Billy Lawrence, thank you for
Speaker 2: sharing your story with us on the show this afternoon.
Speaker 1: So it's a great pleasure, and thank you for having me.
Speaker 2: It's my pleasure. Billy Lowrence the founder of Mobility for Freedom,
Speaker 2: a nonprofit that is trying to help other victims of
Speaker 2: accidents and disability of some kind to get them back mobile,
Speaker 2: regaining some sense of independence through the access to independent
Speaker 2: mobility aids. If you would like to support them, to
Speaker 2: google Mobility for Freedom NPC.