“I was running to get the train, I was going to be late for work - I fell down the stairs and grazed my knee,” Nathaniel Yates tells me, recalling a fateful spring morning nearly 10 years ago where he was fortunate not to be badly hurt. “I thought ‘if a ramp or a lift had been there, that wouldn’t have happened."
The 29-year-old, who has cerebral palsy, had been making the familiar trip from his home station of Reddish North, in Stockport, to nearby Romiley. “It’s really hard running over steps - or walking over steps - wheelchair users have no chance,” he continues. “You might get a serious injury.”
Nathaniel's condition affects the left side of his body and leaves him with walking and visual impairments. These days he is still regularly heading over to Romiley to see friends, but finds the journey difficult to navigate at times.
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