What do you do?
I’m a checkout operator at Tesco.
What has been your greatest achievement?
My greatest achievement has to be moving to the USA to live on my own and to work in a big Children’s hospital. It was tough, but rewarding, and I certainly felt a sense of accomplishment. Although I think packing my passport into my shipping container before moving back to the UK paved the way for an even greater achievement – finding it 40 miles away, in the opposite direction to the airport, with an hour to spare before my flight home!
What was your biggest challenge and how did you overcome it?
The biggest challenge is gaining the trust and respect of people to be able to flourish within a job. I have learnt that I need to have a lot of confidence in myself and to be mentally strong to deal with any doubts from the people around me (and myself!) whilst carrying on performing tasks and changing perceptions. It is a challenge to prove your worth, and I feel that a lot of people have far lower expectations of me, in comparison to what I am actually capable of doing.
Who was your role-model growing up?
Stuart is my number 1 role model. He’s a couple of years older than me and I was “referred” to him by our paediatrician at a time when I wished I could be “normal”. Just by spending time with him, I learnt how to live with my cerebral palsy and that it was ok to do thinks differently to other people. It was comforting that I wasn’t the only kid with CP.
What do you think would help more adults with CP achieve their ambitions?
I think the best way to help more adults with CP to achieve their ambitions would be for the people around adults with CP to think creatively and outside of the box. My current manager understood that I could still be trained to use a checkout as a wheelchair user, but a lot of potential employers did not wish to entertain the idea of sitting down to do tasks that were traditionally completed standing up. I also think that it is important to see other adults with CP visible in the public eye – I recently saw an Instagram post captioned “If you don’t see us, you won’t think of us.” The more people see adults with CP doing everyday things such as working, the less social barriers there may be for the next adult with CP.