I was born 5 weeks premature and I soon developed Cerebral Palsy.

This meant that I have spent my life finding out what I can and can’t do – just like the rest of you.

I can read, but I can’t drive!

I can talk, but I can’t hear properly!

I can ski, but I can’t run!

I can surf the internet, but I can’t surf a wave!

I can move, but I can’t stand!

When I was small, I knew I was different!

Especially when, aged four, I was given my hearing aids. I played catch up with the world. I wasn’t aware of having been a baby, having very few memories of early childhood.

There is a silent space in my life, a space I enter when I’m in bed, in the shower, in the swimming pool or at the hairdresser.

I have had to resign myself to missing out on things, some bad and some good. Frequently I let the world wash over me, I switch off, but that does not mean I don’t care.

I am vulnerable because of my disabilities

I have to take other people on trust, otherwise I would not be able to do all the wonderful and varied things that I have done.  Sometimes I trust too much and suffer because of it. However, I would rather live dangerously than not live at all.

I suppose the worst thing about being disabled is the amount of thinking and concentration that goes on before anything happens.  This can lead to the feeling that one is a nuisance because the number of everyday activities that I can do for myself is restricted and so other people become involved.

It would be so much easier, so much less effort, if I could just come and go without thinking, without all the special arrangements that have to be checked and rechecked.

I'm not a VIP

I’m not even an IP!  I’m just a person who wants to go and do things.

Yet, I treasure all the things that I have done because the effort was worth it and I’ll never take anything for granted.  Plus, if I was not disabled my whole life and my personality would have been different.

I am the only one who can cope with and understand my problems.  If I’m honest, I wouldn’t want it any other way.

The poet, Robert Frost, put it like this -

“Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, and I, I took the one less travelled by, and that made all the difference”

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