Sometimes a problem doesn’t need an expensive solution: just a bit of old fashioned ingenuity. bespoken member John Logan found that his hat was blowing off in Edinburgh, Scotland’s own “windy city.” As he has mobility difficulties,  making running after it even more annoying and dangerous than for an able bodied person, he devised a solution using some things he had around the house.

First he took  retractable line from a pen:

A lanyard, with a safety break to avoid throttling accidents:

And a clip to connect the two.

Once the lanyard and retractable line are connected, the hat is clipped to the line. The device is worn around the neck, backwards so the bulky bit hangs out of the collar at the back. Now when he’s out and about, the hat can only fly the length of the string, and can be easily retrieved.

When he returns home, hat firmly on his head, he has a few more tricks up his sleeve. He has developed a door closing aid, by tying a lace on the interior door handle, weighted down by a key: keeping the spare key here, rather than in the lock, also means that the door can be opened by a rescuer in case he has a fall. Then as he leaves he grabs the lace or key and gives it tug as he leaves, letting go before the door shuts. This saves him having to go back to pull the door shut, leaving the spare key inside.

He also puts pipe lagging on his radiators, in case he needs to grab it to prevent a fall, to save burning his hands.

It’s hard to predict when and how obstacles will appear: but it’s certain that John will be able to find a way around them.

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