Last Sunday was interesting!!
They tell you at the big house to be careful about creating relationships with listeners. They didn’t need to tell me, I’ve seen “Play Misty for Me”
But there is this guy Adam and there is something about him.
Years ago, I was doing a feature on People who had turned their lives round and he came on. He told me that MS had saved his life. He was living the bad boy life and that as the illness progressed those (bad boy) “friends” disappeared. Now he had to find a way to validate his existence. Made sense to me! There is nothing like coming face to face with your mortality to make you fix up.
We had something in common.
The next time he came on (the show) was when I was talking about living with a disability. I knew he was in a wheel chair but the scope of his challenge still shocked me.
Here was my first lesson:
I presumed that the angel who came with him was his carer. She was in fact his girlfriend.!!
I will have to get his permission to tell you how they met but I could deffo make money out of it.
And yes disabled people have feelings and sex.
We then worked with him to get the lift fixed in his building. Imagine being hostage in a tower block during covid with no personal emergency evacuation plan. [PEEP]
Have we learned nothing from Grenfel?
Anyway a few weeks ago he sent me a message.
Apparently due, in part to the confidence he got speaking to me on the radio, he was now going to Geneva to speak at the UN as an advocate for other disabled people 😊
In way of celebration he asked if Badman would come with him to see Arsenal Vs ManU. 🙌
So, last week I met him at Caledonian Road station and we made our way to the game. We seemed to be walking round the houses and he explained that when you are in a wheelchair you have to look for safe routes with level ground. I hadn’t even thought about that. Nor had I really thought about how I should behave. I started acting like his career and he stopped me and told me to be cool. I didn’t know how stupidly I would react to his vulnerability. When we arrived at the stadium he said he was going to the toilet and I immediately got up to go with him 🤷🏽♂️
He asked me what I was doing? I sort of mumbled something about if he needed me. He told me to sit down and stop being an Eddiat. He was gone for 20 minutes and I didn’t know what to do. It was as frustrating as waiting for a woman with lox to do her hair. You can guess who that is.
When he came back, he couldn’t find his mobile phone. 🙀
I literally raced his mobility scooter to the toilet to see if he had left it in there.
It wasn’t!! 😔
We went back to our seats but I knew the vibe was going to be different.
My phone is important to me but his must be a lifeline. The match didn’t matter anymore. I wasn’t having fun.
He said he was going to talk to the stewards in case someone handed it in. This was not South London so there was a chance.
As he turned the scooter round, I could see the phone resting in the undercarriage. Again I ran after him and again I was struck by his vulnerability. He could see it and even if he did, he couldn’t reach it.
My team lost but I felt like I’d won. I was out of my comfort zone, I had a new experience, I learned stuff about stuff and I have a greater understanding and empathy for people with mobility issues. That comfort zone is a safe space but I’m not sure how much you learn unless you challenge yourself.
When is the last time you were out of your zone and how did it go?
😎 Today and tomorrow. Get those vitamins 🌞
P.s I travelled with him and those Arsenal fools singing their hearts out on the tube and felt good that Adam had a good day too. ❤️
