Real stories · No more aching hips on hard chairs

Every hard chair outside my house left my hips aching — now I take my own seat with me

My own comfortable seat, wherever the hard chairs are — that's what I carry out of the door now. I'm 67, and the world outside my house is full of hard chairs: the church pew, the folding chairs at the village hall coffee morning, the plastic ones in the surgery waiting room. Twenty minutes on any of them and my hips would start to ache, and I'd spend the rest of the time shifting from side to side instead of listening.

What I wanted was something that took the pressure off my hips — and that I could take with me.

Then I found the Temperance from a British label called York Boutique — an ergonomic seat cushion with a curved backrest built in. I chose the black; there's grey, pink, green and beige too.

It's contoured to take the pressure off around the hips, lower back and tailbone, and it spreads your weight instead of letting it all press on the same spots — which is why I can sit through a whole service now without shifting. It's one light piece, so it goes under my arm or into a tote bag and comes with me to every hard chair in York.

A contoured seat that spreads the weight and takes the pressure off my hips — which is why I sat through the whole Sunday service without shifting once.

At £34.95 — half the usual £70 — it's the best money I've ever spent on sitting down.

It has done three Sunday services, two coffee mornings and a long wait at the surgery, and Sandra, who brings a folded-up blanket to the village hall, has asked to try it. I did check before ordering that I could send it back if it didn't help — you can, within a fortnight, and the delivery's free.

If hard chairs leave your hips aching too, do have a look. The Temperance is rated 4.7 out of 5 by more than 300 people, it comes in five colours — and the black and grey go first.