Jacqueline Bell spent 28 years working and stopped, with great regret, when she was made redundant by two successive employers for missing days because she was unwell. In her last job as a chamber maid in a hotel, her lung condition made it impossible to find the breath needed to make the beds.
The recent UK Referendum vote to leave the European Union has caused great uncertainty for people living in the UK. There are many unknowns about our future, or how the UK's relationship with Europe will eventually look. It is extremely complex - many of us cannot begin to comprehend what it will actually mean, or understand the negotiations that need to take place. But I do know that for people like myself living with MS, it is crucial that the UK continues to collaborate with our European friends and partners.
Yesterday saw a complete and utter tragedy in Japan when a man decided to attack and slaughter nineteen severely disabled people in a care facility outside Tokyo for the despicable crime of - being disabled. That was it, they were disabled. A cowardly attack by what sounds like a disgruntled employee, perpetrated against people who were unable to defend themselves against his blows and slashes and murderous assault purely because, to his eyes, they were not worthy of life. He attacked and mutilated and killed at least nineteen people in a frenzied knife attack before going to a police station to hand himself in, allegedly stating as he did so: "It is better that disabled people disappear."
The Liberal Democrats are set to become the first political party to choose a candidate to fight a parliamentary seat from a shortlist containing only disabled people.
n 2017 the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities will be examining the UK's compliance with the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD).
The government is facing calls for a "fundamental rethink" of its approach to Access to Work (AtW), after new figures showed the number of disabled people receiving support through the employment scheme fell last year.