'I hadn't seen anyone who looked like me moving outdoors': Bethany Handley on nature, access, and going up mountains in a pink wheelchair

'I hadn't seen anyone who looked like me moving outdoors': Bethany Handley on nature, access, and going up mountains in a pink wheelchair

Published: May 5, 2026

Duration: 27:30

Bethany Handley was always an outdoorsy kid. Climbing mountains, crossing rivers or surfing in the sea near her home in South Wales, she lived and worked in the wild, with a job as an outdoor activity instructor.


All that changed in the matter of a few months as illness left her in a wheelchair. Instead of being out and about, she found herself in a rural home where all the paths she once walked were blocked off to her by stiles whose existence she'd once barely noticed.


Yet she has been determined not...