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World Diabetes Day - From Nurse to Superhero

  Every year on the 14 th November the world turns blue in support of the millions of diabetics worldwide. This year is no different. Right now millions of superheroes get ready to don their capes from carers, to parents, to diabetic teams to friends and family and most importantly diabetics themselves. This year the theme is the ‘Nurse and Diabetes’ which celebrates the truly wonderful work millions of nurses do in support of individuals with diabetes, but I ask you this ‘What defines the definition of a nurse?’. I ask you to look at the cover photo of this story and study it for a few moments. As you do ask yourself these questions, what do these ladies have in common? Is one more qualified than the others? Ready to move on…   T o answer your question what these ladies all have in common is they all care for someone with Type One diabetes. First the Support worker who for the last two years has cared for me, a type 1 diabetic of 27 years. Every visit she reminds me to check
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County Care Independent Living Celebrates its 10th Birthday

County Care Independent Living has turned 10 and despite celebrations being cancelled they still celebrated, lockdown style! County Care, who have offices in Lincolnshire and Surrey provide support for many individuals with learning disabilities, autism and mental health, so have been thinking of ways they could celebrate their upcoming birthday over the past year. Their birthday, which was on Friday 21 s t August was due to be honoured in true County Care style with celebrations throughout the month in all their offices and community and even a whisper of a party was heard. So when the government announced lockdown, their plans were sent into disarray. Lockdown has been particular hard for outreach support agencies. Director of Care, Alex Noakes, has been at the forefront of the team during Covid, trying to keep the balance of staff safety whilst continuing to support the clients. Alex said “T he outbreak of Covid brought with it the biggest challenge I have had to face as a re
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Wheelchair Users Guide to Visiting the Supreme Court

  Being a law student and never having been to the Supreme Court, it was something at the top of my ‘to do’ list. Now for any wheelchair user the first step is preparation so I rang up the enquiries line at the Supreme Court to make sure I could gain access first and to see what I could and couldn’t take in.   Upon phoning, I was greeted by a lovely cheery lady on the other end of the phone who could not have been more helpful and advised that gaining access was not a problem. Step one, tick Some court buildings, especially when court is in session, do not allow phones or food to be taken in. Luckily, the Supreme Court do allow these things, within guides of course!   Step two, tick So planning the day precisely, packing everything but the kitchen sink into my bag, booking my support worker for a very long day and booking the taxi to get me there, I set off on my journey. Step three, tick. Preparation is key! Now the next bit of information, whilst is slightly embarrassing an
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Bar Standards Board ‘Failing’ Disabled Students

Students sitting this year’s bar exams are alleging they are being discriminated against as reasonable adjustments and basic rights are not being met.  Due to the Covid pandemic, the exams for aspiring barristers, which were due to be sat in April, are now due to be held throughout August. This leaves many with concerns who are due to start pupillage in September. Many students are sitting their exams at home via ‘remote proctoring’.  This means sitting in front of a computer for three hours, sometimes more, at a time without moving. Moving away from the situated camera would render the exam a failure.  Students who have already sat their at home exams are already complaining that they had an hours wait before the exam commenced. For those who would be unable to sit their exam at home for various reasons, they will need to sit their exams at a test centre or defer until December. This means some students would be unable to commence pupillages or employment as planned. Visas have also s
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The country’s going back to 'normal' and it’s frightening.

The new 'normal' is frightening Not many things frighten me, and ask anyone and they will tell you, despite my disability I try to be as independent as possible (with a few trusted individuals by my side), so then why please tell me has this pandemic made me into a person that is too frightened to leave her front door. Too frightened for her friends to come round and sit in her living room and too frightened for her to go shopping, because for me this is not normal. It’s far from normal. I’ll be honest with you here, it is frightening the hell out of me. When the country was still 'normal' Before Covid-19 hit, I wasn’t one for sitting indoors. Now don’t get me wrong I wasn’t trekking about town from dawn to dusk doing hikes. I can’t. My disability wouldn’t allow for that unfortunately. My disability would get so overwhelming on a daily basis that I wouldn’t cope and my outlet would be, my support worker, myself and my pink power chair getting out for a small outing. W
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