Access Champion

Feeling the Fear Flames against a black background  I know no one has to justify themselves or a fear but I feel I have to. I have a fear of pain - (needles, injections, surgery...). For the latter, you may say, 'get knocked out!' but anaesthetic also fills me with dread. Here’s why: When I was little, I had four teeth out, by the dentist, under anaesthetic. My mum held my hand, watching as people went in and came out. I lay sleeping still. She stroked my hand, willing me to wake up. When I finally did, a bit of my brain had been lost, and my balance occasionally went and I’d fall. A few years later we couldn’t find out why I tired easily and was so wobbly, the GP sent me to the local Children's Hospital for tests.  I had many tests, including a muscle biopsy. For this, I had to be knocked out with anaesthetic. The test results showed I have Leigh Syndrome, a mitochondrial disease that my little brother died to aged 19 months. It’s progressive, as the mitochondria that fuel

Faye and Mandy outside the theatre with the  Harry Potter and the Cursed Child sign. We were back in London to see Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. Before the pandemic, there were three audio description shows on in January, July and September, now, post-pandemic, there's only one. We booked our tickets a year in advance, the woman we spoke to on the phone very kindly moved us from row Q (the wheelchair spaces) to row F, where the audio description signal was better. Due to the train strikes planned for 26th September, we had to rearrange our whole trip, this involved cancelling a night at the hotel and jiggling the train assistance round. However, when they decided not to strike, we changed our plans back. The train from Liverpool Lime Street to London Euston went surprisingly fast. My mum and I were glad to see a few people, including us, still wearing face masks. London traffic lights don't beep, which I feel is unsafe for blind/visually impaired people. I had to rely on m

In Leicester, we stayed at the IBIS as it’s near the train station. I’ll start this review on the train down. Liverpool to Leicester took two trains. The East Midlands Railway from Liverpool to Sheffield, we were put in the toilet carriage. It had an occasional voiceover in control of the driver, who called out her favourite stations only. Luckily, Sheffield was one of them, so I knew where to get off. Unfortunately, the ramp was not there. This turned out to be because the train had been sent to another platform at the last minute and the staff were unaware. We had to wait a while for the two women to find the ramp. One of them asked abruptly, 'have you not booked assistance' About ten minutes later, we were squashed onto the next train. It felt like an old Virgin train, but the train announcer woman kept saying, 'welcome aboard this East Midlands Railway service to London St Pancreas ...' they had some carriage difficulties, so people were put in the one compartment t

Our second big charity event took place at the Leicester Space Centre. In contrast to the Brooklyn Manchester, the customer service for organising it wasn’t as good. We were pleased to have interest from 57 people. We hired a separate room for the families to meet up with tea/coffee after they had been around the Space centre. When I confirmed our booking and paid the deposit, they offered a chance to look around the centre. I explained to them that as I live over four hours away, it would be great if they could do a tour on zoom. Their reply was a disappointing, 'this is not something we offer.' such a modern and tech savvy approach to business! Especially for scientists. Imagine how much they could open up to new business by offering a zoom/virtual tour! The morning of the event, our taxi dropped us off outside. Faye outside the Leicester Space Centre next to a statue of an astronaut appearing to be floating in space on the top of a concrete base. Blue sky and sunshine. It wa