Articles Tagged ‘Independence’
When Max Burt, 45, received massive head injuries after a freak collision with an out-of-control fire engine 10 years ago, he was left paralysed on his left side and a permanent wheelchair user. The head injury also left him deaf in one ear, with uncontrollable tremors, and severe sight and speech impairments.
Since his accident, Max has learned that, to achieve full inclusion of disabled people in society, 2 barriers need to be overcome: firstly, physical, and secondly, the barriers in peoples’ minds. This has led Max to become involved with many disability-related organisations, in an attempt to overcome real obstacles and prejudices.
Max’s fitness regime (using a reclining exercise cycle) led him to the idea of the Everything Is Possible In …
Read all of SEVERELY DISABLED MAN SETS OFF ON MARATHON 714 MILE CYCLE JOURNEY FROM ABERDEEN TO LONDON, SHOWING THE PUBLIC THAT ‘EVERYTHING IS POSSIBLE’
Pablo is 10 years old and lives with his parents and two younger brothers in north-west London. He attends a local school and goes swimming once a week at the local leisure centre.
Pablo was clinically diagnosed with infantile epilepsy at an early age and this has led to his severe developmental delay. He is unable to weight bear or walk without specialist equipment or assistance and because he has no speech, he communicates by making noises, eye pointing and touch. Pablo is also prone to frequent and repeated infections due to a blood disorder.
To enable Pablo and his family to go out more and access parks and …
Read all of Pablo’s Story
Amelia is 4 years old and lives in the centre of Exeter. She really loves arts and 
crafts, playing with her friends, horse riding and making people laugh.
In 2007 Amelia was diagnosed with Spinal Muscular Atrophy Type II. This neuromuscular condition affects people in different ways. Amelia was able to walk on her own until she was 18 months old, when her condition deteriorated and she now needs a wheelchair to move around independently.
In June 2009 Amelia was given her ‘Koala’ Permobil powered wheelchair, through the support of The Priority Trust. As soon as she received the chair, she worked out the controls and just got on with using …
Read all of Amelia’s Story
In the style of Jess from the Fast show – “today I will mostly be talking about, the past”!
My grandpa, absolute legend with technology, dug out these 3 newspaper cuttings at my request from many moons ago to enable me to write this blog (http://www.flickr.com/photos/martyn_sibley/sets/72157622856332857/). He is a legend as not many people of his age, let alone full-stop, could scan, save, upload and email this so perfectly. Thanks Gramps J
I’ll start with the picture of me in my new wheelchair pushing the football up the alley-way beside our old bungalow. This came off the back of everyone in my village and further afield hearing that I needed a new wheelchair costing £3,000 of which my parents didn’t happen …
Read all of Asking for help, getting help and showing what can be done!
I decided to do a typical style of update in terms of daily happenings but in an overarching manner. It has been known the car and my health have been under par for a while. The update of the moment is I am being admitted to the respiratory unit in hospital tomorrow to x-ray my bad lung and run some tests to see why I am still not clearing the infection. I am ok in myself but a little fed up with this and just want to be better, fingers crossed we get things moving tomorrow.
The broader area I want to discuss is easier with the back story. Those who have read my blogs and know me personally will know …
Read all of Knowing your limits
Having been off for 2 weeks with a nasty chest infection, a broken car and generally a bit stressed I am back at work and back on the road.
I met with Andy of Andy’s Kars at his garage in Bar Hill on Saturday. He has been working on my vans adaptations in the positive sense through the past weeks of trauma. Not only has he sorted my car after the ongoing problems he is an amazing guy generally. While he runs a garage he also does a lot more. In working with disadvantaged kids he helps them to take responsibility for overcoming their ‘challenges’ as he calls them. While it was amazing to meet Andy and see the great work …
Read all of My aspirations; Aiming high!
Having read around the Fiona Pilkington case further I am still sticking to my point that less is sometimes more. Without enough knowledge on the legal aspects I would hate to comment in a blaze of glory I would regret later. I will say that any news that highlights crimes against someone due to disability has to be a positive move, even if the solutions are more around general law enforcing practices.
Reading about Fiona and her family’s isolation and exclusion from society got me thinking more on the subject of inclusivity. I think I have always been quite outspoken that my upbringing was more inclusive. However there have been, still are and always will be times when I feel this …
Read all of The wider benefits of inclusion
This is another one of those periods which was a real challenge. At some time during my second year of uni, I felt a sense of dread that in the not too distant future I would be leaving the somewhat comfortable environment of uni and would need to enter the real world of work. To compound this fear of the unknown, I did not have a clue what I wanted to do with myself. Even though I really enjoyed what I learnt as part of my genetics degree program, I knew very early on that a career in scientific research was just not for me.
I knew that I wanted to do something that could keep my mind occupied and give …
Read all of From university to work…
Keira, a three-year old girl has recently been provided with her first powerchair, with the help of Priority. The SnapDragon powerchair, made with her specific requirements in mind will help her develop and be as independent as possible.
In September 2008, when the Occupational Therapist from Dragonmobility first met Keira at the request of Keira’s OT, she was shy, withdrawn and clinging. She had undergone a lot of medical interventions in her short life, and at the age of 2 had a natural tendency to cry and ask for cuddles when presented with anything new.
Keira has an undiagnosed neuromuscular condition which causes severe weakness, particularly in …
Read all of A new power chair for Keira
Well its been a busy time recently. I’ve been busy with fundraising work, visiting Guildford and Peterborough in the past 5 days via Cambridge to see my parents and grandparents. Also 2 weekends ago I was in Manchester delivering a talk to the youth group at the JTSMA charity that I am a trustee of.
The talk was on learning to drive from a wheelchair. So with all my driving and this talk I gave, I thought it to be a good blog topic.
I do not want to drone on too much about the processes. I hope by stating it is do-able, some of you may have your own views or even questions which I’m happy to answer.
Seriously though, it really …
Read all of Learning to drive
