The Michael Palin Centre for Stammering Children is a specialist centre for speech and language therapy for the treatment of stammering, located at Finsbury Health Centre, Islington.
Following his role in A Fish Called Wanda in which he portrayed Ken, a character who stammered, Michael Palin agreed for the centre to be named after him. Michael's continued support and involvement has helped create a high profile for the Centre.
Born with no arms or legs, Nick Vujicic gives an inspiring testimony about overcoming circumstances in one's life. Nick Vujicic (born December 4, 1982) is a preacher, a motivational speaker and the director of Life Without Limbs, an organization for the physically disabled.
The first-born child in his devout Serbian Christian family, Nick Vujicic was born in Melbourne, Australia with the rare Tetra-amelia disorder: limbless, missing both arms at shoulder level, and having one small foot with two toes protruding from his left thigh. Initially, his parents were devastated. Vujicic was otherwise healthy.
His life was filled with difficulties and hardships. One was not being able to attend a mainstream school because of his physical disability, as the law of Australia required, even though he was not mentally impaired. During his schooling, the laws were changed, and Nick was one of the first disabled students to be migrated to a mainstream school. He learned to write using the two toes on his left "foot," and a special device that slid onto his big toe to grip. He also learned to use a computer and type using the "heel and toe" method. He can also throw tennis balls and answer the phone.
Being bullied at his school, Nick grew extremely depressed, and by the age of eight, started contemplating suicide. After begging God to grow arms and legs, Nick eventually began to realize that his accomplishments were inspirational to many, and began to thank God he was alive. A key turning point was a newspaper article about a man dealing with severe disability that his mother showed him when he was 12, that led him to realise he wasn't the only one with major struggles. When he was seventeen, he started to give talks at his prayer group, and eventually started his non-profit organization, Life Without Limbs.
At the height of the Great Depression, the showman of a renowned circus leads his troupe through the devastated American landscape, lifting the spirits of audiences along the way. During their travels they discover a man without limbs at a carnival sideshow. However, after an intriguing encounter with the showman he becomes driven to hope against everything he has ever believed.
Leonard Cheshire Disability campaigns to change the way people think about, and respond to, disability. The campaign Creature discomfortsfeatures six animal characters, each of which is voiced by a disabled person. Characters include Flash the sausage dog, Spud the slug, Brian the bull terrier and Peg the hedgehog - all wheelchair users who have different disabilities - Slim the stick insect with a walking stick and Tim the tortoise on crutches..
1 Watch me
2 Stick
3 Rubbish
4 Sweet shop
5 Love and sex
6 School / Sneaking up
Script: Once kids find out you've got a disability they will play on it forever, although they didn't understand what was wrong, I'd lost my peripheral vision at school and they knew they could get up close to me, whack me in the side of a head with a book, and I'd never be able to spot who'd done it. So you develop other skills like very sensitive hearing and things like that as a counter measure. School wasn't particularly pleasant, but you learn how to deal with it.
7 Education
Script: ADRIAN CARTER (Owl): It took me a little while to build up the courage to get back into the jist of going into education because you're interacting again isn't it you're back out there with the public. People look at you like, 'oh, he's in a wheelchair and he's in Uni, good on ya mate' you know what I mean. CHRISTOPHER DAVIES (Chameleon): They can be quite judgemental about your disability. I mean the number of people who've told me 'you can't do that', really annoys me, especially as I can do better than they can sometimes.
8 Lesson
Script: DEAN DAWES (Shrimp): Some people go, 'oh, look at that chair' and be all nice about it. But then I get these other people that go 'argh, look at that chair!' DEBBIE REYNOLDS (Cat): If I did mention to someone that I was hard of hearing, they would start mouthing and talking to me like I was stupid, 'a li-ttle-bit-like-this', you know, 'a-re y-ou o-k?' DEAN DAWES (Shrimp): They need to be taught a lesson... a very big one.
