ENTITLED TO SPACE: Nicola Farland is a legitimate user of vital mobility parks. Times photo Wayne Martin.

Diagnosed three-and-a-half years ago with pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH), the 33-year-old is often accused of illegally using mobility parking spaces even though she struggles to walk more than 200 metres.

“Last week I was going to an appointment in Howick and I parked in a mobility park,” she says.

“An elderly lady parked next to me and when I hopped out she politely said, ‘excuse me do you know you’re in a mobility park?’”

The lady apologised when she saw Mrs Farland’s portable oxygen tank and was surprised because Mrs Farland is so young.

Not wanting to create a “sob story”, the former head of health and physical education at Sancta Maria College is more interested in raising awareness about her rare condition.

She has continuous high blood pressure in her lungs. It affects the millions of tiny blood vessels in the pulmonary artery, which carries blood between her heart and lungs.

Diagnosed on her 30th birthday and in her first year of marriage, Mrs Farland says support from family, friends and Sancta Maria College staff and students, has been fantastic. She continues to visit the school but is unable to work.

To an onlooker it may appear as if Mrs Farland has emphysema, a progressive lung disease primarily caused by cigarette smoking, but she has never smoked.

Her breathlessness, blueish lips and her oxygen tube are the most visible signs of PAH. Other symptoms of PAH include chronic fatigue, chest pain, dizziness, fainting and swollen ankles and legs. The condition is rare, with about 60 people in Auckland living with it.

There is no cure for PAH but medications can help relieve symptoms.

Developing PAH significantly shortens life expectancy and Mrs Farland, who lives in Howick, is unable to have children. Her lifestyle is now completely different from what she planned and imagined.

In the early stages of PAH Mrs Farland did not use a portable oxygen cylinder and she experienced a lot of trouble using mobility parks.

<!--page-->“People whispered, pointed, stared and several people confronted me.

“At Botany I had a run-in with an elderly man who yelled at me and I had my card on display.”

When she tried to explain her condition, the man was disbelieving and was accused of using her grand-mother’s mobility parking permit.

Other shoppers watched the confrontation and Mrs Farland felt bystanders thought she was yelling at an elderly person.

This type of experience has now deterred her from using mobility parks because the constant conflict would ruin her day.

“I think that because the symbol on the [mobility] card is a wheelchair, people automatically think users should be in a wheelchair.

“If you’re not in one then they think you should be elderly.”

Mobility permits are applied for through general practitioners  and people must have legitimate needs.  She has suggested to CCS Disability Action, which issues the permits, to include a photograph of the holder but she thinks the cost may be prohibitive.

People also loudly criticise her for walking slowly.

“There hasn’t been a support group in New Zealand so I’m involved in setting that up. I’ve had lots of help from the New South Wales support group and the United States.”

They have developed quick reference cards and posters to help people better understand this ‘in-visible’ health problem, and Mrs Farland hopes to have a similar card for New Zealanders.

Mainly affecting women in their childbearing years, PAH can be very isolating.

About six people meet every second month at the local support group and share information that can make daily life a little easier.