When national tragedies happen it sometimes makes many disability campaigners question whether they should pause in what they are doing for a while.
Is the need for accessible toilets something I should still be pushing when so many have been injured or lost loved ones?
But tragic events will keep happening and we should remember that they affect disabled people too.
A friend of mine, Laura Ramsden, is a powered wheelchair user and was in the audience at the Ariana Grande concert in Manchester on May 22nd. She was with her 14 year old niece and her niece’s 14 year old friend.
She was the responsible adult but ended up trapped inside the building whilst two young teenage girls were taken outside to an unknown scenario.
She was one of the last people out of the building after some brave people carried her out and then went back in to carry her powered wheelchair down the stairs.
Being separated from the children she was responsible for must have been terrifying. They had heard a band, smelled terrible smells and heard horrifying screams.
She didn’t know what was happening to the children outside and they didn’t know if Laura was safe.
Her niece says it was almost 45 minutes that they were separated.
For Laura, it felt like a lifetime.
As I watched it unfold on the news I was unaware that my friend was there. Had I looked at Facebook earlier in the day I would have seen her excited updates as she set off to meet her niece at the tram station. I would have seen the photos of them posing in their Ariana T-shirts and I would have seen the photo she took on her phone of the stage and all the people they could see from where they were.
As I watched the news I was thinking of my own children. My teenage son had recently travelled to London with his girlfriend for a concert and there were probably teenagers in Manchester who had done similar. My younger son is a full time wheelchair user and I thought about the extra difficulties in getting him out of a venue like that.
When Laura left home that day, she wasn’t a disabled woman going to a concert, she was just a funky auntie making her niece very happy! Yet the bomb and the evacuation process made her feel vulnerable.
She is keen to work with the arena to improve the evacuation process in the future. Evacuation chairs could be near the doors so that it is easier to get powered wheelchair users out. She had had to find stewards to get her out and there did not appear to be a plan set up and ready to enact.
Yet despite her wish to work with them to improve things, her confidence has been affected.
My confident, independent, theatre and concert loving friend is wary of ever going to a venue like that in her powered wheelchair again. Yet without her powered wheelchair she would need a carer to push her across the city and to most of the places she can currently go to independently.
This event must not take away her independence.
The right equipment will enable her to be independent and to feel safe.
But she will have to fund it herself.
So until she can, her confidence will continue to be affected.
A few days after the bomb Laura shared a post on social media to her niece.
It sent shivers down my spine as I realised how different things could have been.
And I am in awe of her positive attitude.
We must all keep trying to make things better, in whatever areas of life we are passionate about.
For me, my passion is not “disability issues” but “people issues”.
Any of us could find ourselves affected in the future.
So I will keep sharing our stories and those of my friends.
And we must keep trying to improve things for the future of us all.
Please take a look at Laura’s story.
Laura does a lot of fundraising for others and has battled hard for life changing SDR surgery for herself. She has had very little therapy support though and has made most of it happen herself.
She missed out on getting the free tickets offered to the memorial concert, and it seems likely that it was due to her needing a wheelchair space. Some would have loudly complained but Laura did a fundraising event and helped raise money for those injured in the bombing.
I am very proud to call her my friend.
Ordinary Hopes 
Such a good post rachel. And what a woman your friend is. She sounds amazing. Many people in the attack will sadly now need the things we are fighting for so if anything we need to fight more not less. Keep it up lady xx
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That is very true.
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I understand your concerns about campaigning in the wake of the terrible events recently. The experience of your friend trying to get out of the Manchester Arena is shocking. Like you would think providing usable disabled toilets would be a given for a place like that, you would also expect them to have a plan to evacuate wheelchair users. That’s a story I haven’t heard on the news.
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How utterly terrifying for your friend! It just makes us stop and think, doesn’t it.
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It certainly does. I was glad I didn’t discover that she was there till the following day, by which time I knew she was safe.
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Hello! I saw your comment on my link on bloggers helping each other out about enjoying my blog and recipes, so I thought I would pop over to your blog to say hello!
How terrifying for your friends too 🙂
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You have so many fabulous recipes. I have followed you on Pinterest so that I can browse at my leisure. Totally my kind of food!
Thank you for taking a look at my page too. My friend Laura has been very shaken by this and I don’t think she will ever feel safe at concert in her powered wheelchair again. Although, if the battery hadn’t played up when it did, she might not be here now.
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Your friend sure is a Wonder Woman, and what a woman she is. I hope she is ok and this doesn’t put her off living her life to the full.
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She is struggling but I know she will find a way to overcome her own fears. She adores her niece and will do all she can to show her that you cannot let fear rule.
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What a horrible experience for your friend and i really hope she can move past it 😦
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Your friend is a rare gem. Love her positive attitude.
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She certainly is!
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Campaigning for disability rights isn’t selfish or narrow focused. It benefits the whole of society. I may have another child that has a disability, my children and grandchildren may require disabled access to basic human rights such as toilets. I have worked with children with cerebral palsy and they don’t want special treatment, they want the ability to deal with day to day life in the same way as others.
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Thank you.
Any one of us can become disabled. We should ensure that the facilities we would want for ourselves exist for others.
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I’m glad you haven’t been put off campaigning – the work you do helps so many. Scary that there was no good evacuation plan for your friend – I hope all major (and minor) venues are considering that right now x
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Oh it’s horrible to hear that your friend had such difficulty getting out of the arena due to no proper plans being in place to evacuate her in her chair. It must have been so frightening for both her and her niece. Though more than anything, I’m glad they are safe and unharmed.
Very happy you’re still going to campaign. x
Stopping by from #UKParentBloggers xxx
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I was just reading your post about talking to our children about the events in Manchester!
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Wow, it’s so shocking to find out that there’s no sort of procedure for wheelchair users in a situation like this and that they were separated for such a long time. That must have been so terrifying! I am glad that they are all safe and happy though.
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