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Background

I come from a purely Northern family.  Born in Sunderland in 1985, where my Mother and two brothers grew up, with my Father originating from Todmorden in Yorkshire.  However, my time in Sunderland was short with the family moving across the world to Malawi, Africa in 1988 as my Father took up a lecturing post at Blantyre Polytechnic.  We lived in Africa for five years and, although I was young, I remember a lot of my time there.
I may be wrong, but I do not recall having much difficulty getting on with daily life as a disabled person.  I went to the local school, had lots of friends, had parts in many school plays, played out on the estate with local children.  Maybe I keep these times as an idealistic time in my memory, or maybe its because younger children are more amenable to difference, but I do not recall any extreme negativity, unlike in Britain.
We returned to Britain in 1993, coming pretty much straight to Cambridge. I originally attended a school with no more than 40 students, and had minimal support, much like I was used to from Malawi. However, I was moved to a bigger school about a year later, who had facilities and support for disabled children. I later moved to a secondary school with a similar set-up, but I will discuss my education further down this page.
My family is now pretty scattered, with my Father working abroad most of the time and my eldest brother living in Germany with his family.  However, I feel my family played a successful role in attempting to keep my life as "mainstream" as possible.  Perhaps my positive memories of Malawi were due to exactly that.  Whereby the encouragement to be as independent as possible, including my lack of support in school, meant I was more accepted.  Whereas, in Britain, despite my family treating me no differently to before, the increased support in schools "singled me out" as being different.

  

My Impairment

I have Athetoid Cerebral Palsy, a condition I gained from birth due to lack of oxygen to my brain.  This means I have shakey/wobbly movements and poor fine-motor skills.  My walking is effected so I often use a wheelchair for long distances.  I also have a speech impairment, which possibly causes me the most difficulty in daily live - people often get worried because they automatically think they will not understand me, but if they try and listen they normally do.  People I speak to often, or for long periods of time, do not have much of a problem and manage to "tune-in" to my speech.  Sometimes people try to guess what I'm saying, often because they do not wish to offend me. I'd much rather people asked me to repeat myself.


My Education

As I mentioned earlier, I initially attended school in Africa then moved into the British education system at about age 9.  I often wonder how I would have faired if I'd stayed in Africa.

I never got very good grades at school, getting only 4 Cs in my GCSEs (in only two subjects, both double awards).  The problem? Exams!!  I could revise all day, everyday but still come out with terrible results, but yet my course work was always very very good.  However, coursework doesn't count for much at GCSE and A'levels, so when you're constantly coming out with "below average" grades, you get disheartened.  I knew I was intelligent to some degree but I didn't know how to prove it.  I did A'levels for one year, until getting the exam results and realising I needed another way
So I opted to do an Advanced GNVQ in Health and Social Care (equilivent to 2 A'levels) which placed more wieghting upon the coursework.  Indeed, with the coursework alone I would have got two As, however the exams still brought me down to two Bs.  But that was enough to prove to myself that I had some potential.
In 2006 I applied to Anglia Ruskin University to do a degree in Social Work.  They turned me down for a number of reasons, including my education record, stating that they did not feel I would cope with further education.  Upon accepting their denial, I decided to apply for a social policy degree, at the same university, in the same year - I was accepted. 
The Social Policy degree had no exams and was assessed purely on academic essay writing. As a result, it allowed me to discover my "niche" and expand, in my own way, upon issues I was already interested in.  The lack of exams worked very well for me, I got continually good grades and finished with a First Class Degree.  
Now, I dare not let my new found abilities go to waste.  So I have just started a Masters Degree in Disability studies with Leeds University.