MP meets with teenage disabled access ambassador
Greg Mulholland, MP for Leeds North West, has met with 14 year old constituent and disabled rights champion Nathan Popple to discuss the future of wheelchair accessibility in Leeds.
Nathan, who attends Ralph Thoresby High School in Holt Park, has cerebral palsy and uses a wheelchair. Earlier this year, frustrated at being unable to access a Leeds bowling alley due it having steps Nathan set up a website called accessibleleeds.com in which he charts the accessibility of venues in Leeds. Upon hearing about the work of his constituent and Whizz Kidz Ambassador Nathan, Greg Mulholland MP tabled a Parliamentary Motion in support of Nathan's work and also to recognise the difficulties faced by wheelchair users in accessing many public places. Greg Mulholland is Chair on the Parliamentary Paediatric Mobility Group which is sponsored by Whizz Kidz and he has recently been nominated as Children's Champion in the Dods Charity Champion Awards 2012.
Greg Mulholland MP commented: "I was delighted to meet up with Nathan and discuss how his inspiring campaign is progressing and also to talk about the ways in which I can support him in achieving his dream of a truly accessible city for all. I am extremely impressed with Nathan and his refusal to be defeated. When being told that he could not go bowling, instead of just remaining sad and angry about the situation he decided to do something positive about it in order to raise awareness and to help others. Nathan is a true inspiration and I look forward to working with him further and helping him in his goal to achieve fair access to all places for people of all abilities."
Nathan Popple commented: "I am so happy that my MP Greg Mulholland is helping me with my website and trying to make all of Leeds accessible for everyone. He really cares about the things that I care about and I think it is really great that Greg made sure that people in Parliament know about what I am doing. I am very excited about everything that is happening and knowing that I have lots of support from my MP makes it even more exciting. I love politics and am really interested in it but I did not know that MP's did so much for people in their area, it is amazing."