My views on ‘Don’t take my baby’!

So yesterday 20th July BBC THREE aired a brand new drama programme called ‘Don’t take my baby’ which is about a young disabled couple Anna who is a a wheelchair user and Tom her partner who is partially sighted as they struggle too keep their new born baby as they try to prove to social services that despite there disabilities they can take care of there child’s every need, this drama was based on a real life situation and is part of 15 other programmes on BBC THREE as part of their defying the label season that will look at life as a young disabled person.

As many of you will know there have been quite a few programmes in the past about people with disabilities and disability throughout the last few years, that force society to rethink the way they view disabled people and I love that, the more people get to see that people with disabilities live the same lives as everybody else the better. This programme though more than any others I’ve seen really got to me and left me wondering about my future within today’s society as a young disabled woman. We live in a society that sadly at times judges everybody for everything but I’ve genuinely never even realised that one day I may be judged on my ability as a parent solely because of my disability. I know that to a lot of you that probably sounds incredibly naive but as my disability is one of the least important factors of who I am, I can honestly say I’ve never thought that one day my future as a mother will be judged by someone who doesn’t know me as a person but instead just knows me as a new parent with a disability.

I can completely understand that social services have a job to do and that any child’s safety should be the most important thing but watching that poor couple who obviously loved there child dearly being watched and questioned daily absolutely broke my heart, when there are people out there with no disability at all who don’t look after or mistreat their children. One of the biggest shocks for me watching last nights programme was that it is thought that approximately  3000 children are removed from disabled couples in the UK which is fair enough if every other possible avenue has been exhausted and the child is genuinely at risk but I believe that a lot more should be done to help disabled parents be the most amazing and loving parents they can be, I’m not a parent yet but I know that I will love my child/children just as much as any other parent and my disability will not alter that at all!

So all in all after spending hours crying and feeling angry I believe that BBC Three did an amazing job by raising awareness of such an important and sensitive subject in such an incredible way, the show was so well written both Ruth Madeley (Anna)  and Adam Long (Tom) the main roles are both very talented actors.

Did you guys watch ‘Don’t take my baby?’ If so what did you think? I’d love to hear you thoughts & if you didn’t I’d definitely recommend you give it a watch on BBC iplayer.

Happy National Cerebral Palsy Awareness Day!

Today 25th March 2015 marks National Cerebral Palsy Awareness day, so I couldn’t let it pass by without writing a post so I thought I’d do a post about all things positive when it comes to Cerebral Palsy. I thought I’d write a list of 5 celebrities with Cerebral Palsy who inspire me because they have never let their disability hold them back when it comes to pursing their  dreams.

Francesca Martinez –  Francesca Martinez is best known for being a stand up comedian & actress but she is also a campaigner. Francesca’s attitude towards disability and her Cerebral Palsy is refreshing and is something that inspires me and many others to never let CP get us down.

Christy Brown – Christy Brown is someone I’ve only recently heard of but wow what an amazing example of not letting anything stand in your way, Christy was born with severe Cerebral Palsy and his parents were sadly to when he was born that he would have no sort of life as he only had control over just one limb which was his left foot. Despite doctors predictions Christy went on to have an amazing career in both art and poetry and sold his amazing paintings done with just his foot all over the world.

Anne McDonald –  Anne McDonald was an author and an advocate for people with communication difficulties sadly Anne had a difficult start in life which saw her be neglected and starved at the hands of her carers. Despite her difficult start in life and her serve Cerebral Palsy Anne never let that hold her back, Anne’s book called ‘Annie’s coming out’ all about Annie’s life won numerous awards and went on to be made into an award winning film. As well as this Anne was also an amazing advocate who did so much to help raise awareness for people with Cerebral Palsy and communication difficulties.

Abby Curran –  Abby is an american beauty pageant contestant who was the first person with a disability to compete in Miss USA, she now appears on American TV regularly and has now set up her own pageants for young girls with disabilities called ‘The Miss You Can Do It’ pageant.

Dan Keplinger –  Dan is best known for his art and his Oscar award winning short film King Gimp, He is an incredibly talented artist and also a great example of how cerebral palsy doesn’t have to stop you living and pursuing your dreams. Dan is now a motivational speaker and talks all around the world inspiring people and motivating them to find and pursue their passions in life.

This list is just a small example of 5 incredible people who are proud of their Cerebral Palsy and have never let it hold them back or define them, I know so many incredible people who aren’t famous who motivate and inspire me everyday! Who inspires or motivates you guys?

Since starting this blog I’ve had so many amazing comments and emails of people saying they love my passion and positivity when it comes to my disability and it’s such a lovely feeling because only a few years ago I really struggled to accept and love my disability, so I wanted to use today to let anyone out there who might be struggling with accepting their CP know that it will happen eventually over time you will come too realise that your Cerebral Palsy is just a tiny part of who you are and you can achieve incredible things! One question I get asked a lot is ‘Would you take a cure for you Cerebral Palsy?’ & the answer always is  NO without a doubt, I’m not saying that my CP doesn’t annoy me at times but I consider myself to be blessed and I’m proud of who I am Cerebral Palsy and all! I think we should use everyday but especially days like National Cerebral Palsy Awareness Day to unite and show the world that we’re proud of our Cerebral Palsy and that it won’t stop us making our mark on the world!

So I just want to finish this post by saying Happy National Cerebral Palsy Day too all my fellow CP’ers I hope you all have an amazing day and keep showing the world how incredible you are and let them know that having Cerebral Palsy is not a big issue, we will never let it dull our sparkle! ❤

Blogger help? :)

Hey all my lovely fellow bloggers this is just a quick post to ask for some help, some of you will know that I’ve been wanting to set up my own business for some time now and earlier this week I had a meeting with a business advisor.

The meeting went well and I feel like I’ve made a huge step forward in terms of setting up seemenotcp but now I need to do all the boring stuff like business plans and market research which is where I’d like your help, Seemenotcp would go into schools, colleges, universities, organisations and speak to new parents of children with Cerebral Palsy and help answer any questions, give talks, raise awareness and also offer disability awareness training. Before setting any of this up though I need to see if their is a costumer base and a need for my services so if you feel you or anyone you know would benefit from this type of service could you please take the time to fill out this short survey?

You can find the survey here https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/PZ6K82P  it will take less than 10 minutes to fill out but will really help me out, Thank you for your time and any help you can offer me guys! 🙂

Yay or nay to shows like the undatbles?

I’m a sucker for a debate and this week I found a news article on line that I thought would be brilliant to get peoples opinions flowing. As a disabled person myself I absolutely love seeing programmes that help raise awareness of disabilities in a positive way, so when I found this article on the pros/cons of shows about disabled people e.g the undatables, don’t drop the baby or beauty and the beast, I knew I had to write a post about it.

As with any show there will always be some controversy so you’ll have your lovers and your haters. I’ve got a huge amount of friends who can’t stand these shows for the simple reason that they feel these shows not only belittle disabled people but they also don’t like the backlash of negative attention these shows bring for disabled people. I can completely understand their opinions but I love these programmes and have from day one but like every show on tv these shows have both there positives and negatives.  I love that they all show that having a disabilities doesn’t stop you living a ‘normal’ life, it has it’s ups and downs but you can live as happy and fulfilled life as anyone.

One thing I do hate, hate, hate about these shows is the incredibly small minded and insentive names the big bosses at the bbc/channel 4 insist on calling them, I mean what an earth would make them want to call a programme about disabled people dating ‘The undatables’ How is that allowed??  as a disabled women myself I’m definatly not undatable I’m a bloody good catch! 😉 and too me calling it ‘the undatables’ suggests to other people that they should in some way pity disabled people looking for love, another one was the show ‘beauty and the beast’ a few years back which saw two different people, one with a facial disfigurement and someone who was obsessed with looking good and you got to watch as the pair spent time in the others life. As much as I loved the concept this programme was trying to promote I stopped watching after a couple because I found that the name of the programme in some way made fun of people with facial disfigurements and made them sound less attractive than there ever so beautiful peers.

I have friends who a couple of years ago took part in a programme with a name that they were less than happy with as it was about them being disabled parents and they felt that the programmes name gave the opinion that as parents they weren’t very careful, which of course isn’t true. Disability or not they’re some of the best parents I’ve ever had the pleasure of meeting and there two boys are some of the happiest and most content kids you’ll ever know.

I understand that the big chefs have to get ratings and by giving these programmes risky names they’re drawing attention to the show so therefore it will get views which of course is great for them and to be fair to them I don’t actually believe that they set out to hurt or offend anyone with these titles but if they just put a little more sensitivity and thought into the names then I truly believe that these type of programmes would not only flourish year after year but they would also help in a great way to raise awareness of how diverse and amazing our world can be.

So now that you’ve heard my rants I’d love to know what you guys think?