A Day in the Life: Sarah's Journey

When I was born I was diagnosed with Spina Bifida. After surviving the 3 weeks that my parents were told I wouldn't, my parents began to realise they had a fighter for a daughter.  I have also been informed that at this time my parents were asked whether they wanted to put me up for adoption. My parents expressed how horrified they were by this question and never had to question whether keeping me was the right thing to do. This brought them strength to carry on and do their best by me. Due to my ill health, the hole in my back was not closed up immediately, as a result, this led to Hydrocephalus also developing. The first 5 years of my life were challenging for the whole family not just for me. I have an older brother who also had to learn to grow up quite quickly and who also had his own health problems. My parents recall a time when I was in one hospital and my brother was in another. This led to the family being split in two for a period of time.  My shunt bein...

I have visited the Lake District many times and always love exploring the area. There is still so much that I haven't explored yet, and so I am sure that there will be a lifetime of experiences yet to have. I have decided to share my experience to help others who may like to visit this beautiful part of the country. A couple of times that I  visited the Lake District, I have stayed in a Premier Inn. To a certain extent, my heart sinks to admit that I would much rather feel like I was giving money to a local B&B but sadly, too few are accessible enough for me to stay comfortably in. With a Premier Inn hotel, you know what you are getting, and many are newer buildings which means they have to adhere to certain guidelines which give the person staying peace of mind that their needs will be met. The staff were very friendly and helpful, speaking to me rather than the person I was with. This made me feel welcome and safe that I had made the right decision about staying here. I sta...

After a number of life-changing experiences, I was given a new outlook on life. Life is for living so make the most of it whilst you've got it. So over the years that followed that is how I have tried to live my life. One aspect of this was taking up a new hobby, I had wanted to try Scuba Diving for several years after a try dive on a holiday in Tenerife. Little did I know at the time that the experience I had was nothing compared to the experience I was going to have.  During the year where my life changed forever, I stayed with friends for a while, they themselves have disabilities and they introduced me to the Scuba Trust. This is a charity focussed on providing support and instruction to individuals who want to learn to dive but have a disability. I soon got hooked and decided that I was going to work towards my PADI Open Water qualification. For anyone unfamiliar with this, there are certain skills that you have to practice and achieve in the pool before even being allowed in...

In 2010 the Equality Act replaced the Disability Discrimination Act 1995. The Equality Act is to cover more areas of an individuals life not just employment like the Disability Discrimination Act did previously. One of my main concerns is how a number of different minority legislation's have been lumped into one and that this is meant to be sufficient, wont this make the current Act less flexible? limiting those who are seen as having a disability as not all individuals fit nicely into a category of impairment. So does the Equality Act really work? I have come to recognise that there is a mixed view on whether it really works or not depending on the individuals that are spoken to, especially with regards to reasonable adjustment within the workplace. When speaking to officials (including trade union officials who deal with case work) they can not speak highly enough of the Act and are able to state that as a result of the legislation they have been able to resolve a number of c...

As a relatively new member of the Green Party I have continued to educate myself on what the party I have chosen to affiliate to stands for, although I have known the importance of understanding politics and the active participation in debate for many years this is the first Political Party that I have affiliated to. As part of my participation in the local Green Party (Luton and Bedfordshire) I will also be standing for a council seat in my area (Clapham, Bedfordshire). So why is this? Quite simply I agree with their policies and the general ethos of the party. You may have heard the phrase ‘for the common good’ being used when discussing the Green Party. This is what all Green Party policies are based on, and simply means for the common good of everyone and everything. Hopefully you realise that all Green Party supporters aren't vegan, hippies that belong to a ‘Environmental Party’ and that actually there is much more involved in the Green Party. The environment does require loo...

The issue of Access is often a contentious one, if you talk to someone with a disability then there is always problems with not enough being done, yet if you talk to people in authority there are always excuses as to why more can not be done. I appreciate that there are times when it is not possible for there to be access to something be it the physical limitations of the person themselves (e.g. rock climbing) or through buildings being so old that they can't be adjusted enough to be fully accessible. Although this is the case, organisations will often hide behind 'reasonable adjustment', expecting disabled people to just accept that as much is being done as possible. As mentioned above, I appreciate there are some limitations with buildings that are really old and that I will not be able to get everywhere that I may want to, but I still feel that often more can be done than is currently being done so. Companies should want to do as much as they can to include everyone (at ...

This post will discuss my own experience of depression and what helped me to get through the tough time I was experiencing.  I decided to write this post on depression because writing has helped me in the past to release my thoughts and feelings about subjects that would normally eat me up inside and so I hope reading will also help in some way. When the subject of depression and on this occasion suicide is discussed in the media, I find myself having very mixed emotions. Firstly I am sad for the individual and their families, looking back over your life and how they have touched your lives even though you did not know them personally. I have also found due to my own problems with depression it brings back memories of when I was at my lowest. On a bit more of a positive note I find myself being relieved that for a short period of time as individuals will feel more able to talk about their experiences. I also feel it helps to  raise awareness of what a debilitating illness d...