How a disabled girl's life was transformed by a trip to the beach A seaside outing is now a much happier experience for Fiona Blaikie's daughter – with help a National Lottery funded project Updated Advertorial Beach wheelchairs have been a game changer for Joelle Spending your 11th birthday splashing in the sea with your brother and sister would be a fun day out for most kids. But for wheelchair user Joelle, it was a momentous occasion. “She hadn’t dipped her toes in the sea since she was about three, when I stopped being able to lift her,” explains her mother, Fiona Blaikie, 36. “Wheelchairs don’t work on soft sand, so we could never get Joelle to the sea."