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Why I decided to establish Priority
by Kieran Prior
Like most children, my childhood is filled with happy memories. Most of which are of playing with my brother and our friends in the garden, keeping goal in five-a-side football matches or even just going for a ‘walk’ with my mum to the shops.
To be blunt, none of these would have been possible without my powered wheelchair and the freedom it provided. Receiving my first power chair was life changing. Moving unaided was mind-boggling. Finally I felt I could join in and feel more ‘normal’ than ever before. Looking back over this fondly nostalgic period, I think that the gift of liberty, the chair provided was fundamental to my future successes.
I arrived in London in July 2000, after graduating from the University of Manchester. Prior to this I had never lived outside of my parental home. So moving was a very big deal, but that’s for another time I guess. Whether I was lucky or stupid to move, I managed to settle here. I joined a major investment bank as a Proprietary trader and have been in trading in some form or another for about nine years.
A couple of years ago, a group of disabled young adults visited the office to spend the day with us. My interactions with the group throughout the day changed my life and outlook forever.
Growing up, I had very little involvement with disability. This sounds funny I know, from someone who went to a ‘special school’ until the age of ten. But all my friends were able bodied and as I moved to high school, college and such, I rarely met anyone with a disability. However that day at the office taught me of my own responsibilities to others. As I spoke about my day to day work, I could see a change on those teenagers faces. There was a realisation that they could do anything and more importantly, that their life’s ambitions should only be bound by imagination.
I looked around to see how I could best help. I became an Ambassador for Whizz-Kidz who do a fantastic job of providing equipment and with whom Priority works closely. However for me this was not really adding as much as I would have liked. In 2006 I ran into Mark Borland whilst walking to work and we started chatting. We came up with the idea of using my life and career experience to show others what can be achieved and to open the issue of disability to a new audience. So we set about bringing together a unique group of professionals to be trustees and initiated the Priority Trust.
Our original idea was to bring more funding to other charities and help relieve their waiting lists, something which we are very proud to continue to do.
As Priority evolved, we wanted to demonstrate more examples of achievement within the disabled community. We want to provide encouragement to those with little and share knowledge and information. Ultimately we want to breakdown the taboos and ignorance that continues to surround the topic of disability.
This is why I created Priority and the blog. I’m delighted to welcome the other Bloggers to Priority and am certain that their involvement can make a real difference to how disability is viewed.
Going forward my personal blog will focus on the perception of disability and how it is viewed by others. Comments will always be very welcome.
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I have known Kieran since his university days at Manchester. He was an outstanding student but he also had time to enjoy life. We have become friends through the years and I am really proud of what he has accomplished till now. But I know he has many goals for the future. I want to be a witness of what he will do.
Regards
Comment by Miguel E. Santillana, February 11, 2009
I believe it right that in the world of sport, paralympiads who through determination and hard work rise to become champions, should be honoured by their country in the same way as less disadvantaged sporting champions.
But what of those whose achievements are less widely visable, people who face herculean challenges in much less public arenas of competition – such as at the workplace or at school and alongside less disadvantaged colleagues; how do we recognise and value these ‘triumphs of the spirit’?
Should this level of human endeavour pass unrewarded – or unrecognised?
Despite such personal hindrance Kieran endures, in spite of the daily adversity he has to negotiate – he continues to tug at the shirtsleeve of consciousness: always looking forward to what can be achieved and rarely looking back. If his desire to make a difference, which is truly olympian in scale, is driven by one reason alone it is because Kieran understands the power of action more than most people.
The primary purpose of his charity is to deliver the means of action to those that don’t have the luxury of taking it for granted. I believe the secondary purpose is to build an inertia behind a movement for change: change in attitude, value-recognition and understanding. By harnessing internet technology to bring this campaign into the public arena, Kieran seeks the reward of greater empathy – and a team of like-minded people growing ever louder.
And in this as in everything, I wish my friend every luck.
Andy
Comment by Andrew Cooper, March 20, 2009