Author Archives: wendy
MP tells of Alzheimer’s grief
Protest … members of Alzheimer’s Society with MP David Miliband.
MP David Miliband yesterday revealed his first-hand experience of the impact of Alzheimer’s, when he was lobbied to save a vital support worker’s job.
He told carers who are urging him to act that his grandmother had suffered from the devastating illness.
June Coser, 80, chairman of the South Tyneside Alzheimer’s Carers Funding Committee, said she was moved by his words – and believed he would do all he could to help.
She said: “Mr Miliband explained to us that it was a subject close to his heart. He described how his mother had to look after his grandmother, and the distress it had caused.
Closure of Remploy factories will devastate the lives of hundreds of disabled workers
‘We’ve no chance. I can’t see myself working again’
Irshad Mohammed tells Charlie Cooper the closure of Remploy factories will devastate the lives of hundreds of disabled workers
Irshad Mohammed will always remember the moment he lost the job of 35 years at the Remploy factory in Acton, one of 54 such workplaces in the UK that specialise in employment for the disabled. On Wednesday afternoon, at 2pm, he and his colleagues were told that their factory was shutting down. Thirty-five others are set to close across the company, with the loss of more than 1,700 jobs.
“We thought there would be some closures, but never on such a scale,” Mr Mohammed, 54, told The Independent. “We thought that at least one London branch would stay open. But all three – Barking, north London and Acton – will close. I argued with the management on the day. I said: ‘Look at what you are doing. You say that disabled people should get work at normal factories but there is widespread unemployment out there. There are students with degrees who cannot get jobs. We will have no chance’.”
