View from the Chair

31st August 2010

Hello and welcome to my latest blog.

It's hard to believe that it's a year ago that we published my first blog. So much has happened during the year, not just at WDP (Warrington Disability Partnership), but also at home, work and elsewhere in society. I know from the messages of support that I have received that many of you have enjoyed reading about my thoughts; therefore I look forward to the next 12 months. Before I do, I'd like to thank Sue and Penny Abbott, and Sues business partner Alan; together, through their company Skillzone, they do a great job looking after our websites.

I'll start this blog with a first for WDP; our team were recently interviewed for an article that appeared on the ITV's national evening News. The article focused on the scrapping of Anti Social Behaviour Orders (ASBO's) and what this meant for disabled people. As some of you will know, disability hate crime and incidents often go unnoticed due to low reporting and even lower prosecutions. I felt that our team that included Jayne, Roz, Kate, Terry, Rachel, John and Naomi gave a fair representation on how vulnerable many disabled people feel today, most of which stems from lack of understanding which leads to stigmatisation.

Another national first for WDP was the mention we got in the match programme produced for last Saturdays Challenge Cup Final, which was played at Wembley. For the second year in succession Warrington Wolves were victorious, this time against another Yorkshire side in the shape of Leeds Rhinos. Wolves ran out 30 points to 6 winners. Not bad considering Rhinos have won the last four Super League games against the Wolves. It was like a family day out at Wembley, I joined my son Gavin, dad Neville, sister Jayne, grandson Jamie, brother-in-law Graham (alias Cousteau), son-in-law Tommy and his mum and dad Sue and Keith who flew over from their home in Cyprus. The facilities at Wembley for disabled fans are some of the best I have ever seen including the car parking, lifts, level access, great signage, plenty of accessible toilets, low level catering counters, fantastic viewing platforms located at about half way up the seating areas and more than accommodating stewards. But I'm sure that my friend and fellow colleague from WDP Dave Connor found that the railway station at Wembley isn't fully accessible for wheelchair users! I hope that this is sorted out in time for the 2012 Olympics and Paralympics otherwise it could prove very embarrassing for the organisers and even more frustrating for some visitors and sportsmen and women! Jamie, mum Mavis and even my wife Pam, who is totally anti sports joined me and over 50,000 Warringtonians at the Town Hall as we welcomed back our heroes. The atmosphere was electric. The sea of primrose and blue was a sight to see, with thousands and thousands of flags, scarf's, shirts, fancy dress, streamers, hair and face paint and anything else that signified our colours. You could see by the look on the players faces that this was a memorable moment, one that none of us will ever forget. I must pay credit to Warrington Borough Council who did a great job in allocating protected space at the front of the crowds for disabled fans. The whole two days made everyone involved proud to be from Warrington. Whilst on the subject of pride, I was really pleased for four of my work colleagues last week when it was announced that their project has been shortlisted for the national Nursing Times Awards. Julie, Eileen, Harry and Bernie have worked tirelessly for the past two years to ensure that service users and carers play an active part in the Trusts work surrounding infection control. Hundreds of projects are submitted for these prestigious awards, and to get through to this stage is an achievement in itself. Good luck to the team, I'll let you know how they get on. Staying on the awards theme, tomorrow evening I will be joined by my colleagues from WDP to judge this year's entries for the North West Positive Action Awards which recognise exemplar practise in the field of disability relating to service delivery, employment or individual merit. Over seventy nominations have been received from disabled people, carers and those working in North West. The awards will be presented at a glittering presentation event that will be held at the Halton Stadium next month. As well as the Positive Action Awards, WDP has initiated several other nationally acclaimed projects including the Disability Awareness Day and the refurbishment of the Centre for Independent Living. But it was another WDP project that has received international interest and recognition namely "Sex and Disability Matters". Narelle, an Occupational Therapist working in an Independent Living Centre in Perth Western Australia first made contact with WDP after seeing a short DVD on YouTube and followed it up with a message via our website. After weeks of communications between us, Narelle took her findings to two conferences, the first a local/regional event and the second an international event held in Tasmania. Feedback from Narelle has been very positive, so much so that she is considering setting up a similar sex and disability project in Australia. I have offered to join Narelle and her colleagues at their next international conference due to be held in 2012 in Australia. Before you say anything, it's got nothing to do with scuba diving....... ok maybe it did influence my decision to offer my services. I hope the venue isn't too far away from the Great Barrier Reef! On a serious note, we should never underestimate the power of the internet as a tool to sharing, globally. One person who would have been very proud of this international recognition is Annette Clemo. As some of you will know Annette died a year ago this month. She was heavily involved in the development of the project. She was a great disability campaigner and one of the founder members of the partnership. She travelled across Europe to promote our work. She is sadly missed. As their summer breaks near to an end, members of our team at WDP will focus on completing the work at the Beaufort Street Centre for Independent Living. With a little over £50,000 worth of work to complete and just over half the amount still to be raised we will need to work hard to meet the target of holding the official opening within this financial year. Other priorities will be the Positive Action Awards ceremony and the new Town Centre Mobility Show, which will take place on Saturday 25th September, in and around the Old Fish Market and town centre. The event will promote mobility products such as scooters and wheelchairs, alongside transport with motoring and Motability, accessible buses and taxies. We are currently looking at a couple of surprise exhibitors that should create some keen interest from motor racing fans. I am going to finish this time with two personal issues, the first concerning my new hobby/sport, scuba diving. Pam and I recently travelled to the south east coast to visit friends. First spending a few days with Cynthia and Frans in Suffolk where we had a nice relaxing time; although one afternoon it did feel somewhat surreal as I sat by the back fence of their house garden whilst Pam mowed the rear garden and Frans mowed the house garden, both on sit-on lawn mowers. I smiled as my mind wondered about them speeding off into the farmer's field next door, for what could have turned out to be a very interesting lawn mower race! Our next stop was Margate, where we met up with Ron and Jean, friends we met last year in Egypt. On the first evening Ron and I joined Shaun and his wife Karin, and members of Kent Scuba in a dive in the walled pool which is in fact located in the North Sea. The thought made me cold, but once in the water it was fine. Shaun explained that visibility wasn't the best, but it was a new experience, and once again it was liberating just being in the water. The following day we joined Shaun and Karin at their dive store. I suppose we spent more time than I care to admit to Pam, hey I was simply being polite to our friends. It was clear after spending time with Shaun that he has a great passion for diving, and an even bigger passion to expand access to scuba diving to more disabled people through "Scubability". I look forward to working with them again at next year's DAD. Finally, I recently received a message from Paul Coleridge, an old friend from my American Football days. We were team mates at the Warrington Scorpions. Unfortunately it wasn't just an hello; Paul was contacting me to share the news about his nephew Tom. His dad Gary was also a friend and team mate from the 1980's. Tom is just 18 years old and has followed his lifetime ambition to be a soldier in the Army. On the 10th July this year just a few weeks into his first tour of Afghanistan, Tom was out on patrol with his unit in the Helmand Province when they were ambushed. It was a heavy attack and sadly Tom took a bullet in the right hand side of his abdomen, the bullet tore through his stomach and into his spine. Tom has lost his right kidney, his spleen, and he has severe liver damage, and sadly Tom's spine has been severely impaired by the bullet, and unfortunately the latest CT scans show irreversible damage to his spinal cord. Paul was asking if I could offer any advice and support to Tom, his dad Gary and mum Julie. I never gave it any thought when I said yes. Ironically Paul, Garry and their family formed part of a virtual support network that helped my family after I sustained spinal cord injury in 1989. Together with my fellow trustees, staff and volunteers at WDP we are offering our help to support Tom and his family. If you would like to know more, or you want to pledge your support for Tom please visit www.moon13.co.uk/warringtoncaresfortom

Until next time, thank you for your interest.