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1. It doesn't affect me in the slightest talking about my brother although sometimes I feel uncomfortable telling people initially.
2. My brother in no way is offended by discussing his disability - it is something he has to live with and has to cope with.
First of all I am extremely proud of my brother, he has been through a lot and although I didn't realise it at that time, I do now and so am very protective of him! He is like my baby in a sense, I worry a lot about him constantly and am scared to leave him on his own. An example of this was when my dad, Chris and I went to a Greek restaurant recently for my dad's birthday. After a nice meal dad had to get off and I also had to be picked up by James ASAP because the police were coming round about James stolen bike. Chris's carer had not arrived by the time I needed to go home and felt so so bad about leaving him on his own. I insisted he text me when he was home and also rang him 5 minutes after I had left. Luckily his carer arrived about 30 seconds after I had lft but it still cut me up. I know full well he can look after himself as he has done for the past 4 years he was at university but it's something I can't really help!
Ever since I was young there have always been wheelchairs around that looked huge and bulky to me but in fact were very small because Chris was very small. When I was younger I felt like he always got special treatment, like he always got more attention than me. My parents tried hard to make sure this wasn't the case, my Dad especially made sure we were treated fairly and I love both my parents because of this. But when you're young you don't realise that they were trying and so I still felt annoyed by him and all the attention he got, sometimes I would steal some of his chocolate that my mum or dad bought him. I always got told off for doing this but I'm not so sure n my motives behind this. Maybe I was just greedy!
Chris had to undergo a lot of surgery to straighten his legs and hips which were causing him pain when he was around 8/9, I believe and in total had approximately 9 operations which he fully recovered from. I remember having to go to the hospital quite regularly during this time and remember seeing him in the beds looking quite fragile. I remember him having to pick what he wanted for lunch and dinner and also the amount of food my parents and I had at the canteens there. I hated the smell of hospitals. For his bravery he got to meet the Prime Minister at the time which was John Major and received an award called The Child of Achievement Award and is something he still has. Like I said I am very proud of him. Around the same sort of time he also got to go to Lapland with my mother which was paid for by a charity that help disabled children and so I couldn't go because of this.
Anyway, as we got older, Chris got bigger and bigger and it became difficult for my parents to lift him into bed at night and my dad pulled a muscle in his back because of this. I think it did put a strain on both my parents, my mum used to get annoyed very quickly and so did my dad at times. Eventually they split up when I was around 14/15 and Chris a year older. I don't think them splitting up had anything to do with me or Chris it was just one of those things and it is better I suppose now they are both separate (2 lots of presents and Christmas and Birthdays!).
Before this though, Chris had the choice to either go to a normal school which was well adapted for disabled people but was still a normal mixed school and a place where he could do GCSEs and A levels, or go to a special needs school close by which did not offer him this. Chris picked the normal school. I think this completely sums him up. He is completely normal in every way, he just has physical disabilities which slow him down but is just the same as you and me inside. I think this is something which people tend to forget and does annoy me sometimes but I know it's different when you don't grow up around people with disabilities.
Anyway, Chris finished his GCSEs and went on to do A levels and passed with flying colours. The grades he got enabled him to go into further education and he decided to go onto doing Business Studies at degree level. Due to some health problems in the final year he did have to retake that year as he missed a lot of study and is in the process and re-doing his dissertation at the moment. I know he got into some trouble while at university which I find hilarious! He once told me he picked up a traffic cone because he was drunk but was pulled over by the police and cautioned! You may find this link interesting if you laughed at this.
He has his own flat now and full time carers to look after him. He is into the 'normal' boy stuff like women (cringe), football and music.
People in wheelchairs are just normal people at the end of the day and I would say that anyone approaching someone in a wheelchair should treat them like any other because they can still have a laugh, get drunk etc like us walkers.
Hope you enjoyed reading!
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