Dear LPG,

About a year ago I heard from a friend that there was a chance that her mother may never be able to walk again after breaking her hip and, the news as you would expect was quite devastating for them both.  I worked out, a long time ago, that the best way to support someone in her position is to empathise with her but I had no real idea of what she was going through. 

Her mother is in her late eighties, showed relatively little sign of the effects of dementia when it happened, and her daughter was very aware of the potential effects that her lack of mobility could do to alter that. 

I remember reminding her of Stephen Hawkins who, in spite of his illness, managed to do so much. But she pointed out that he is an exceptionally well-educated man unlike her mother.  I then remembered the suffragettes.  When we think of their achievements we think of Emmeline Pankhurst, but many supported the cause including Lewisham-born Rosa May Billinghurst.  She did not let the fact that she was crippled by Polio when a really young child hold her back, and spent many hours in the middle of the demonstrations getting arrested with the rest.  She was famous for using a tricycle for getting around and was toppled out of it on more than one occasion. 

It occurred to me that my friend’s mum is not a political animal but this suffragette, and so many other people who have lived with disability and still make their mark on our world, should be an inspiration to anyone who finds himself or herself in the really frightening situation of being unable to walk.

So in this year when we have celebrated the centenary of the passing of the 1918 Representation of the People Act, which changed so much, it is worth remembering that the disabled also played their part proving that, and while she was not in her seventies when she became disabled, Rosa May had to adapt.

My friend’s mum is much better now and, though a lot more slowly, she can walk again but I wanted to share what I have written as an added bit of inspiration for anyone who is now going through what she was then.

BR, Lewisham

(►►►)      (►►►)       (►►►)