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We are launching a new blog series that goes into the personal and activist history of Disability Rights UK staff members. This came about after a Team Day exercise where we each shared our pathway into the disability movement, and learned just how much history and passion lies within our own staff body. There are so many personal stories we wanted to share! In this part of the blog series, we'll hear from our Get Yourself Active team about how they became involved in the fight for disability rights.

Bex, Head of Partnerships

A self-proclaimed “older member of staff,” Bex has many years’ experience in campaigning across the board. She has always been very political, having been reduced to a ‘spluttering fury’ whilst still in her teens once she worked out what the then-apartheid regime in South Africa meant. She began campaigning in her teens – being at the forefront of different campaigns, e.g. anti-racism, anti-nuclear arms, women’s rights, opposing Section 28 and wider LGBTQIA+ rights. Disability was a natural part of this campaigning – in Bex’s words, ‘once you spot injustice somewhere you spot it everywhere.’

A direct-action protest in Cardiff was how she first really got involved in the disability rights movement and what made her aware of the sheer scale of the discrimination against Disabled people.

Laura, Get Yourself Active Programme Manager

At 10 years old, Laura was diagnosed with bone cancer – which led to life-long disabilities. This experience consistently highlighted inequalities to Laura – e.g. when she was in a wheelchair, people would talk to her Mum and not her. She faced inaccessibility and discrimination, and didn’t have the same opportunities. At 14, Laura volunteered at Mencap. Many people in her family are neurodivergent, including herself who was late diagnosed. Laura wanted to be a normal teenager – didn’t want to campaign, but personally struggled with injustice. But at 16, she got pregnant – and faced much prejudice. E.g. people saying she couldn’t go to school as a young mum, or that she wouldn’t be able to achieve or do certain things.

She later became a teacher for adults with learning disabilities, but then had to leave work due to her health. When she went back, she grappled with the decision of “do I go back into a system that’s broken or do I try and fix it?” She chose the latter and began working in the disability rights sector.

Liddie, Co-production Lead

Liddie has always had the desire to do a job where she can make a positive change, so working for DR UK is the perfect fit. She did a counselling degree at university and then went on to study a masters in Social Work, where both her placements were in the voluntary sector. She has worked with various groups of people including working as a support worker for people with learning disabilities, and working a number of years with homeless people in London. Through her work and personal experience she has a good understanding of the barriers that Disabled people and people with long term health conditions can face, and is passionate about fighting injustice.

Elliot, GYA Project Co-ordinator

Elliot is a Disabled person himself and has 19 years of lived experience. He has had four spinal operations to remove a tumour and drain a cyst from inside his spinal cord, affecting how he walks. He had his first operation when he was 11 back in 2005, his most recent one in 2013, and he needed stoma surgery in 2017.

After graduating in 2019 with an oceanography and coastal processes degree, Elliot interned at a remote sensing company. This required Elliot to be in the office five days a week for eight hours a day, which Elliot struggled to cope with whilst also having to manage his disability. When he asked for adjustments, he could sense from his internship provider that they weren’t happy about this. This made him want to move away from the STEM sector and into the charity sector. He wanted to work for an organisation that understood disability and made its employees feel comfortable by valuing lived experience. Furthermore, he wanted to use his lived experience to support other Disabled people by working to remove some of the barriers he once faced.

Elliot has been working with Disability Rights UK since joining as a volunteer in January 2020, where he assisted with running DR UK’s shop. He has since joined the Get Yourself Active Programme, where he helped deliver the Together Fund before moving into his co-ordinator role, where he now supports several projects.

Amarjit, Moving Social Work Programme Manager

Amarjit has a naturally caring and supportive nature and will aid anyone whenever and wherever she can. This along with a challenging childhood led her to a career in Social Work. She gained her degree as a mature student and began practicing within local authorities in a variety of teams over the course of nearly 10 years. She has worked with older adults, transitions, Learning Disabilities, Mental Health, Hospital  Discharge Teams.

As a practicing social worker, she has continually advocated for those accessing social care services and feels that this is where she gained a deeper understanding of the barriers faced by Disabled people and those with long term health conditions requiring support to maintain their autonomy. In more recent years she has had a more personal experience of the impact of disability through a loved one. This has only reinforced in her the importance of being part of the voice in standing against injustice. We will all be likely to be touched by disability in some form within our lives or of those we love so inclusion should be a given not a privilege.

Keep an eye out on Disability Rights UK's Blog to see the next posts in our series!