I can’t let World Toilet Day pass without talking about Changing Places toilets. It has been great to hear that the 2000th Changing Place was registered in the past week. It’s a huge achievement but there’s still a long way to go to get Changing Places in all public spaces.

In recent months we’ve travelled to the north of Scotland and to the south of England from our base in Central Scotland. Our WAV (Wheelchair Accessible Vehicle) has given us freedom to roam. Quinns is happy and comfortable remaining in his wheelchair as we drive.

Our routes are always rigorously timed and planned according to stops with a Changing Places toilet available to give him a break. On our first journey north of around 150 miles we planned for one stop to break up our three hour journey. There is a choice of only two Changing Places toilets along the entire route!

We chose the Tiso store in Aviemore, which was slightly over the halfway point. As well as the newly installed Changing Place we were pleasantly surprised to find a cafe in the outdoor/camping shop. The food was so good it tempted us back on our journey south again.

We would have liked to try out the Changing Place in Pitlochry but with limited opening hours it didn’t work with our plans. So for journeys north we will be back to Tiso until there are others for us to try.

Our second journey was the long road back to Quinns’ London hospital. At more than double the distance of our journey north, about 340 miles, we expected it to take us around six hours and need two stops. Thankfully, recently, there has been a large investment of funding for Changing Places toilets in services across England so we had our choice of service station stops with suitable facilities along the route. 

In order to meet the standard required most Changing Places look the same, with similar equipment and fittings. On our way south we noted in one of the new service station toilets there were instruction panels for each bit of equipment. This is a really helpful addition as although the equipment is similar it’s not necessarily always the same and we need to work out how to use it.

On the way back we decided not to travel straight home, instead stopping in Leeds to meet friends. We were impressed by the additional details in the Changing Places in the Royal Armouries Museum there. Quinns especially enjoyed seeing the elephant statue on the screen. These small details make a big difference to our experience.

Using Changing Places in service stations meant we didn’t need to track too far off route and add extra time to our journey unless we had a reason to do so. Sadly they are not quite in all service stations yet. On the final leg of our journey we stopped at Tebay North having used Tebay South on the way only to discover there’s no Changing Place in the north one and no access to the south. 

We learned important lessons from our journeys north and south including how little choice we have and why route planning is so essential for us. There may be 2000 registered Changing Places across the country now but the campaigning for more must go on.