30 years of Lowestoft Shopmobility Charity

We are a Charity situated at 15, Station Square in Lowestoft.

Our primary purpose is to enable people with disabilities, or older people with

mobility problems, to retain their independence, by borrowing our scooters, electric

wheelchairs, manual wheelchairs, rollators or tri-walkers to get around the town.

This enables people to do their own shopping, deal with their own financial affairs at

the bank or post office, visit the library or the hairdressers, meet up with friends for

lunch or enjoy the fresh air along the promenade. We also sell donated goods for

disabled people and the profits from this go into running the Charity.

My husband and I set this up in 1996 with a group of disabled people to help us.

Whilst working at D.I.A.L. (now Disability Advice North East Suffolk) we became

aware of the fact that many people had problems with transport and with getting

around. At first we set up a DIAL-a- Ride service, and later Lowestoft Shopmobility

was set up too. Since we began, we have hired out 23,960 times, so quite an

achievement.

We began life on the Railway Station, but after 13 years, we were told that they no

longer wanted a charity on the Station, so we had to look for a new property. We

took on the lease of 15, Station Square in 2010, and have been there ever since.

The service is offered five days a week. We arrange delivery of scooters to hotels,

guest houses and holiday parks throughout the area for a small charge. Many

visitors and holidaymakers use our service, some booking with us from one year to

the next, when they come on holiday here. We get some lovely comments from

them, saying such things like they would not come to Lowestoft on holiday if it was

not for our service.

We are at a time when we do need your help, as all of us are getting older, and we

have recently lost a number of trustees due to their age and ill health. We really do

need help from the community, as we need more trustees to run the service. It is not

an onerous post for a volunteer, as we only have meetings every two months, but in

between we have to agree policies and procedures. So, if you are interested in

keeping our excellent service going for many years to come, please contact our Co-ordinator

Jacqui on 01502 588857 or email on info@lowestoftshopmobility.org