She is, in the opinion of her friends, an optimist by nature. Anne Morelli-Jagu, 74, with multiple disabilities, is preparing to do 110 km in a wheelchair, from Suresnes, where she lives, to Omaha Beach in Normandy. Objective of this crazy race imagined a year and a half ago, on a sleepless night: to raise awareness of the missing street furniture for disabled people and to pay tribute to the nursing staff.
In France, 30 million French people are in a fragile situation in their mobility, according to the Keoscopie Mobility Observatory. Anne, on dialysis, and in a wheelchair because of bone degeneration, is no exception: “A trash can lying around, a car door that prevents you from passing, a sidewalk not suitable for going down, it is non-stop” , explains the one who can only be transported by bus, not being sure of being able to get out of the metro when she takes it.
One of his nurses accompanies him on his days off
So she had this idea, with her cheerful and “sunny” nature, as her friends say, to organize this race, to prove both that you can do a lot when you are disabled, but that you also need that we make our life easier. Precisely, the former social worker was fortunate to have behind her the Lions Club, an organization of service clubs around the world, which has not done things by halves. “One of the members did the route twice, including one on a bicycle, to see how I could pass…”, she tells us, grateful.
Four Red Cross volunteers will also be present in an ambulance along the entire route of ” An armchair on the road To be able to react to the slightest glitch. And, as a result of the bond that has been woven with the nursing staff who have been accompanying him for years, Florent, one of his nurses, took his days off to accompany him on an electric bicycle.
Stopover in Lisieux for this fervent believer
He will be there at the first stage, precisely, which goes from Suresnes to Poissy, on September 6, ie 22 km. Anne Morelli-Jagu will then join Mantes-la-Jolie from Epône, will connect Saint-George-Motel to Bueil, will go from Evreux to Le Neuville-du-Bosc via Le Neubourg and finally, before the beaches of Omaha Beach, the town de Lisieux, second pilgrimage town in France after Lourdes, and the stage which most attracted this Orthodox Christian.
“At the beginning I wanted to make the pilgrimage to Saint-Jacques, then I said to myself that I had to find a more accessible place. And even if it means going that far, you might as well go to the D-Day landing beaches for the poor boys who fell there! », She tells 20 minutes.
Here she is all set, a little stressed, but “morally up for it”. Her friends found the project a little crazy but are convinced that it will succeed, as always. For Marie-Antoinette, who admires her: “She is an example for others, she shows that when you want, you can. “
To donate to the operation, you must go to the HelloAsso page of An armchair on the road.