The end of asking someone to bend down for me

I have spina bifida and I use a power chair. I have played boccia in the Midlands league for four years, and the part of the sport that never turns up in the photographs is the collecting. Thirteen balls, six ends, every match, plus whatever gets knocked out of the box in the warm up.

For years that meant one of two things. Either a volunteer crouched down and gathered them for me, which is fine the first time and wearing by the fortieth, or I fished them towards myself with a stick I had made out of a broom handle and a bit of pipe lagging.

The pick up is a clear acrylic tube. You push it straight down over a ball, the ball travels up inside and stays there, and it holds four before you have to empty it. Then you tip them out of the top into the tray. It needs almost no grip strength, and I do the whole of it seated, without leaning out past my balance point. That is a real safety issue for me rather than a comfort one. I have been out of my chair reaching for a ball before.

What it changed most is the rhythm of a match. I clear my own end at the same speed as everybody else and I get back to the box thinking about the next end, instead of sitting there waiting and saying thank you again.

Two honest things. It is a lot of money for a tube, and I thought exactly that when I opened the box. And clear acrylic is nearly invisible on a pale sports hall floor, which is how ours got left behind at an away match in February. It now has a band of red electrical tape round the top.