TEENAGER Rachael Dewhurst from Long Bredy was chosen as an ambassador for the charity Whizz-Kidz to lobby Liberal Democrats at their party conference in Bournemouth on behalf of disabled children.

Rachael, 14, has cerebral palsy and very limited mobility but she has never let that hold her back.

It was her outgoing and outspoken personality that led Whizz-Kidz to chose her as one of its ambassadors when she was 11.

So she was a natural choice to ask to put the charity's case for better NHS provision of more customised wheelchairs to the politicians and financial support for the charity.

Rachael, who has just started at Thomas Hardye's School in Dorchester, said Whizz-Kidz supplied mobility equipment to children under 18 because it was impossible to get what was needed from the NHS.

She said: "The NHS just gives out wheelchairs based on medical assessments, not on what you do, or where you live.

"Whizz-Kidz wants the government to change that so that there is more money and they can do better assessments of what styles and size of wheelchairs to give out.

"Whizz-Kidz doesn't get any funding from the government and they are hoping to get some. I wanted to go because it was a chance to support Whizz-Kidz and address issues that are important to wheelchair users and disabled people.

"Those issues included access to places and transport."

Rachael added: "We had to talk to MPs to explain all this.

"It was very informal and we met them in cafes and coffee bars which did make it less intimidating but it was a bit too informal as it was hard to hear with all the background noise. They were very interested."

Rachael said that Manchester MP John Leech was the most interested and asked a lot of questions.

She said: "To them a wheelchair is a wheelchair and you don't need anything else but that isn't the case. It was exciting, exhausting and fun."

Mum Rosemary said she was very proud of Rachael.

"She coped with it very well considering it was a very grown-up place to be in. She had to talk about modernising the culture within the NHS."