You may have to organise this because nobody else will. 

I like to be able to run my house and live on my own independently or with my girlfriend. I don't want to rely on her or anyone else. I do NOT like being held back or prevented from having a normal life by the system or by lack of some essential equipment. With it (PowerChair) am able. Without it I cannot function EFFECTIVELY.

Contrary to popular belief if you are Paraplegic you actually do NEED a powerchair to run your life if you are to have any "quality" of life. This is all my own opinion of course, based on 12 years living in the real world WITH a PowerChair and a previous few without one and struggling with a manual one. If its broken or unusable I am screwed!   I have have to go back to my manual chair.  Its like having your legs cut off if you are able bodied.  Life stops.  Everything becomes slower and more difficult or impossible. Manual chairs are THAT restrictive. Most users don't see it because they are used to it and accept it.

You can manage without one obviously, but its immensely difficult and slow and often requires help from others. Manual chairs hinder everything you do. You also need a suitable vehicle to function really effectively as these two as a matching pair are almost essential if you want a normal independent and most importantly, a normal active and busy life in today's society. Not cheap, but being disabled seldom is.

Problem with the system: After a huge accident left me paralysed (T4 complete, chest down) I completely ignored the advice of the (money saving) "system" whose logic says that a paraplegic does not "need" a powerchair. Actually he does no matter what they tell you. You can survive in a fashion without one but that's just not adequate. You don't have to use it. You will still have your sporty manual wheelchair sat there as well. But if its there you will. And you will do so more and more and eventually wonder why you waited and wasted all those years.

They are only for "Quads" apparently!  As explained by physios, OT's and health professionals the world over. Just because you can manage in a manual wheelchair (or a very expensive sports manual wheelchair) does NOT make it a sensible option!  But it makes it cheaper for the system...

Now there are thousands of Paraplegics (and others)  reading this saying that they don't "need" or "want" a power wheelchair!  And that I am talking crap. I can hear them. I have heard it all before! 

I hear it every time I go back to the spinal injuries unit and in other wheelchair users homes that I visit.  They are *brainwashed*.  The seed was planted in the typical spinal injuries rehab unit. Every Paraplegic "knows" that they use manual wheelchairs and Quadriplegics "need" powered wheelchairs...: So a Para using a PowerChair is just "wrong" isn't it?  Actually NO its ridiculous! Blame your rehab for this attitude.

Nobody likes to think they were brainwashed, but in this country at least, it happens. Its not a conscious thing perhaps but they haven't changed with the times. Every Paraplegic goes through a type of production line in hospital as they recover. Takes many months to over a year.

My time was 1997 was in Sheffield in the UK. A spinal injuries unit. The Osborn Unit. All Physios and OT's (Occupational Therapists) are trained - probably quite innocently - to be this way.  They really believe a manual wheelchair is a better bet (or cheaper bet) than a powered one for someone whose arms work but whose legs don't. They cannot see how much it holds back everything you do. If I knew how useful (some) powerchairs were I would have had one before I was paralysed.