Going Against the Flow

I am a learning support worker in a college run by Mencap. All the students have learning disabilities, often accompanied by complex medical conditions: Down’s Syndrome, profound autism, cerebral palsy, Fragile X Syndrome, epilepsy. When I left university I had no idea that I would end up in such a job. Now, as I watch the students’ confidence grow and see their personalities develop, I wonder how I could have considered doing anything else. I also wonder how anybody could fail to recognise the brilliance and the beauty of their minds.

Some people do fail to recognise it - including doctors and other medical personnel. Some of them make the decision that people with learning disabilities aren’t worth treating properly - and act on that belief. Some of them have good intentions, but struggle to understand the needs of patients who differ from the norm. The result is that people with learning disabilities often suffer needlessly in the absence of appropriate care. Some of them die.

I would like to think that if any of my students were admitted to hospital, they would be guaranteed the same standard of care as everybody else. Mencap is working to make this hope a reality through its latest campaign, ‘Getting it right’.

On 5th September I am going to swim two miles across Windermere, aiming to raise £6000. That number has significance: I want to raise one thousand pounds for each of the six people whose deaths sparked off this campaign.

The swim itself has significance, given my medical history. This time last year I wasn’t well enough to swim ten lengths in a pool, let alone two miles across a lake. A few months ago I made the decision to swim for Mencap, realising that there would be challenges ahead. But I’m going to do it. In honour of the dead, and for the sake of the living. It’s the best motivation that I could have.