This is a short speech for the national charity Include Me TOO
I am 28yrs old and I have had a Personal Assistant team for 20 yrs. They support me to be fully independent and give me control of my life. For instance I can go to work, have a social life, meet my friends, go to gigs and music festivals, theatre and travel around the world.
This year is massive change due to Corona Virus in my life and suddenly I found myself with no Personal Assistants as we went in lockdown and I was shielding. I felt this was the strangest thing to be happening to me ever, with being inside and unable to go out, everything stopping, and fear about catching Corona Virus.
All the family supported me instead of the Personal Assistants. Two of my brothers and sisters were supposed to graduate from University and returned home to help. I felt really sorry for them not to be able see their friends and celebrate their last term. One of my sisters came home from London and we had a rota for everyone to help with supporting me, take the dog out and do the cooking. We had a busy first 3 months. I am worried about the future and it feels like lockdown is never going to stop.
I keep busy at home example writing my blogs about my travel experience for IncluTravel, the travel company I work for. One positive of lockdown I have time to write blogs because before I was too busy with social life.
Lockdown as impacted my mental health and wellbeing. First time I felt really upset because I didn’t expect my life to change so much. I can’t go outside because I am a high risk and people don’t know so they might not social distance from me. My mind said what if I caught the virus. Every day I looked on BBC news about how many people dead in the UK from the virus. It was interesting to see the numbers but the high numbers made me angry and incredibly sad.
I have been staying at home and it means I rarely go outside which is not good for me physically. If the weather is beautiful, I can walk with my family and enjoy, but when it is not nice I am confined to the home. But, lockdown has meant I have been doing yoga, physio and in my walker more than before corona virus. This is good for my physical health.
In March and April it is all my families birthdays. Before lockdown we would have gone for meals, drinks and met friends. Not this time. But the birthdays, especially mine, were still fun and memorable. We had lovely homemade birthday presents and delicious meals including my brother’s cheese cake!
As lockdown finishes I am still fearful. After not being outside much I am afraid that people will not be socially distancing and are unaware of those of us who have been shielding. Disabled young people were ignored and forgotten before lockdown and I feel it will be even harder for us and our worries will not be taken seriously. My message to the Government is remember us, keep listening to young people, support us back into society and raise awareness of the threat of a second wave.
Nadia Clarke 