By Malcolm Street
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Ponder this question for a moment. What would you do if you were really keen to enjoy the motorhoming lifestyle but could not do so because of some serious disability or illness?
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This story started out as what I thought was to be a typical motorhome review, at least when I first heard about it. What it turned out to be is something quite extraordinary. 
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It’s a story of courage, sacrifice, generosity, determination and love, which tells of a desire to enjoy the RV way of life, no matter what the odds. It all started when Robin and Patricia Douglass introduced themselves to the proprietors of Pegasus Motorhomes, Mark and Michelle McLindon. 
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Robin and Patricia wanted to go motorhoming and were making enquiries about the possibility of a Pegasus coach conversion. Nothing unusual here, you might think, except for one thing: Patricia requires 24-hour care and can venture from home only with difficulty. 
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Following a serious vehicle accident, Patricia became a quadriplegic; for most people that means being housebound for the rest of their lives. Robin decided he did not want that for Patricia and sought an alternative. 
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Robin had been a road train operator and he and Patricia had always wanted to try the motorhome lifestyle. 
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However, in the aftermath of the accident it seemed an impossible dream, principally because a quadriplegic person needs a maximum amount of comfort and a minimum amount of movement – Patricia cannot travel for very long in a standard vehicle, even in the specially modified Holden Suburban that the Douglasses own. 
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It was coaches that started Robin’s thinking about motorhome travel again. Many highway coaches are fitted with comfortable airbag suspension and some of those become motorhomes. A contributing factor was that Robin and Patricia’s two daughters and son didn’t want to go on holiday without their mum.
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In his search for a motorhome, Robin cast his net far and wide but could find nothing that would meet Patricia’s special needs. In the first place, there are very few manufacturers who can make something usable for a disabled person, in most cases providing only wheelchair access and room to move inside the motorhome; Patricia’s needs moved well beyond that. 
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Robin is not a person who understands the word ‘No’ very well at all, and so it was he discovered Mark at Pegasus Motorhomes. 
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Mark and his wife Michelle decided that they would take up the challenge and it was, as you might imagine, quite a task. Initial design and sourcing components took the first couple of months. 
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This was not easy: there were no design precedents and most of the necessary specialist components are simply not available in Australia – a large phone bill testified to the difficulty of this chore. 
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A second major problem was that those components, once sourced, had to be modified to suit a motorhome. For that, Mark hired a determined consulting engineer who didn’t know the phrase, “But we have never done that before”. And so, the gestation period of Patricia’s Baby, as it came to be known, began. In all, it took about 14 months. 
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Of course, some parts of the building of Patricia’s Baby were fairly conventional. Pegasus sources all its prospective coach conversions for customers and in this case it was a 1986 40ft Denning highway coach. 
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Once in the Pegasus workshop it was stripped until just the frame was left – both internal and external skins were totally removed. At that point all corrosion was cleaned up and repairs done where necessary. The new frame was then rust-proofed. 
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Externally, the roof was lifted, front and rear headers added, new fibreglass front, rear and side walls were fitted, as were new windows and new barn doors, replacing the old bin doors. Internally, the floor was raised and 
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the structure made ready for component fitting. The existing motor and transmission system were retained, albeit in a totally reconditioned state. 
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Apart from all the special fittings, what makes the layout of this motorhome different is that it was all designed first and foremost for Patricia’s comfort; her special chair, her bed, the bathroom and the location of the TV screens were in place to suit her. 
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Even Patricia’s drinking water comes from a special stainless steel tank – it all had to be just right. 
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Patricia gets around in a specially built 4WD-battery powered wheelchair. To steer that into the motorhome would be a challenge, so the chair is parked in its own special ‘garage’ below floor level and a different system of moving Patricia around is used in the motorhome. 
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There are two doors along the nearside of the motorhome. One, for walking passengers, has a small lift that elevates people up to floor level. Patricia has her own door with a hoist that can lift her (sitting in a custom-built sling) into the motorhome and on to a special seat. 
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Like the wheelchair, Patricia’s travelling seat has been custom-built and fully tested for motorhome use.
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It was designed for her weight, height and size to give maximum comfort – so specific is this that no other person can sit in the seat. It can recline and has been designed to swivel so that Patricia’s movements can be kept to a minimum, all using a remote control. 
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Also built into the general design of the motorhome are very large windows in the front area so that Patricia can enjoy the view as she travels.
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If Patricia wants to go to the bathroom or the bedroom, a hoist and rail that runs the entire length of the motorhome efficiently achieves that task.
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As you might expect, the bathroom is also a unique design, with the toilet and wash basin on one side of the motorhome and the shower cubicle on the other. The hoist rail has a junction outside the shower arranged so that Patricia can be easily hoisted in. 
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Both sides of the bathroom have doors for privacy and the floor has a raised lip to contain any water spillage. 
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Patricia’s Baby has four beds. Two in the rear are for Patricia and Robin. Patricia’s is again a particular design that has been modified to suit both the motorhome and Patricia’s needs and is under the hoist rail. 
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To assist Robin (who is fully trained to look after his wife), two bunks are installed for nursing staff. Robin and Patricia employ a nurse, and usually at least one member of the family accompanies them as well. 
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Although Patricia’s Baby is uniquely fitted out, it does have many of the normal motorhome features. There’s a decent kitchen with cooktop, grill and oven, microwave oven, Waeco fridge/freezer, full slide-out pantry, stainless steel sink and plenty of cupboard space. All the benchtops are finished in polished timber and all the cabinetwork has a two-pack paint finish. Traveller comfort is assured by two onboard air-conditioners. 
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Around the outside there are large storage bins; some are dedicated for items like Patricia’s motorised wheelchair, generator and the all-essential monster barbecue, but others are just for the normal items of travel.
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The family Holden Suburban also goes along with Patricia’s Baby. It has its own Pegasus custom-built trailer and is essential because Patricia cannot travel in a normal vehicle. 
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The Suburban is modified to take Patricia’s wheelchair and looks a little like the Popemobile. Having the large trailer behind makes the entire rig 19.8 metres long, about 0.8 metres longer than is normally legal, but Robin has a special permit. 
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It is almost impossible in an article this length to cover the courage and patience that Robin and Patricia have applied to get the motorhome they wanted. It’s almost as difficult to capture properly some of the pain, persistence and sacrifice that obviously they have gone through. 
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However, after talking to Robin and Patricia, as well as Mark and Michelle from Pegasus, 
it’s for certain that persistence has paid off. 
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This is not just a story of a motorhome conversion but more a tale of four gutsy and determined people who refused to accept things the way they were, and sought to make them the way they could be.
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As I looked over Patricia’s Baby, I could hear the pride in Mark and Michelle’s voices as they talked about their achievement. Robin and Patricia are just as happy for similar and different reasons – their purpose-built vehicles will take them anywhere and everywhere they want to go, with all the comforts and necessary features of home along with them. 
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Congratulations to Pegasus for its fantastic efforts, and we are pleased to welcome Robin and Patricia to the world of motorhoming. CW wishes them well in their travels. 
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Pegasus Motorhomes, (07) 3299 3066, mobile: 0414 304 430, website: www.pegasusmotorhomes.com.au
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Pegasus Patricia’s Baby

Base vehicle: Denning highway coach

Length: 40ft (12.1m)

Berths: Four

Stove: Spinflo Cara four burner cooktop, grill and oven

Fridge: Waeco

Fresh water: 1000 litre

Filtered drinking water: 250 litre

Grey water: 250 litre

Black water: 250 litre

Entertainment: AM/FM radio/cassette/CD stacker plus two LCD TVs

Special features: Hoist rail and hoist, travelling chair, hospital-style bed, bathroom, wheelchair ‘garage’ 
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Pegasus custom motorhome

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