Category Archives: cerebral palsy

‘there are times I could just run out the door’

October 5, 2012   Carers, cerebral palsy, family, Scotland

As told to Joan McFadden Susan Love, a nurse, lives in Paisley with her husband Willie and 19-year-old son Owen, who has cerebral palsy and hydrocephalus. Here, she tells Owen about the love – and the guilt – she feels for him

You’ve always been a bit of a surprise to me, right from the moment I found out I was 26 weeks pregnant at the age of 19.

My first reaction was ‘My mum is going to kill me’ and she wasn’t jumping for joy when I told her. I was in a steady relationship and training to be a nurse but everyone in my class had been warned that if anything stopped us sitting exams we’d have to start from the beginning. There had been an outbreak of sickness in my ward so when I started feeling ill my GP thought I’d picked it up from my patients. I was still suffering from terrible tiredness two weeks later so I went back and saw a locum. I quite like a bit of drama but I wasn’t prepared in the slightest when the nurse came bounding through the door and said: ‘You’re pregnant!’
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Norman Lamb, King’s Fund – Integration

September 11, 2012   Carers, cerebral palsy, disability, DOH, Older care
September 11, 2012

Transforming Local Services
A reshuffle is a strange thing.

I’ve followed the health reforms pretty closely so I’m relatively up to speed.

But often, new ministers find themselves in departments where they know only the bare bones of the policy. And they’re expected to turn themselves into experts overnight.

I’ve been an MP long enough to hear my fair share of new ministers read out speeches in the Commons and clearly have absolutely no idea what they’re talking about. The crueller members of the opposition can sometimes make it a bit of a trial for them.

But the machinations of government can’t just creak to a halt as the new people find their way around. So new ministers rely on ever-present civil servants to guide them. They rely on ministers who haven’t been reshuffled to keep a hand on the tiller. And they rely on their fellow new ministers to be conscientious, decisive and creative about their own parts of the portfolio.

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Mum joins political elite to fight for carer’s rights

August 28, 2012   Carers, cerebral palsy, Scotland

CLARE LALLY is Scottish Labour’s newest addition, bringing her experience of caring for her disabled child to the Shadow Cabinet.

Clare will make sure Labour understands the challenges facing families like hers
Clare will make sure Labour understands the challenges facing families like hers

A  DEVOTED mum is taking her experience of caring for her severely disabled daughter to the frontline of Scottish politics.

Clare Lally is to join Labour’s shadow cabinet as their first “Carers Champion”.

The role will see the 31-year-old, who has no previous political experience, advise Johann Lamont’s party on the challenges facing Scotland’s 660,000 carers.

Clare, of Duntocher, Dunbartonshire, said she was delighted to help influence key policy.

She said: “I have always been a Labour supporter. But to actually be able to contribute and help make a difference is a better opportunity than I could have asked for.”

Clare and partner Derek Steel, 36, provide round-the-clock care for Katie, five, who was diagnosed with quadriplegic cerebral palsy after a difficult birth.

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