Peterborough Unlimited: ‘Day that celebrates our individuality’

December 3 is celebrated every year as the International Day of Persons with Disabilities.

It originated in 1992 by the UN General Assembly as an observance that aims to promote the rights and well-being of persons with disabilities in all spheres of society.

The latest stats from WHO states that there are a billion people in the world who have a disability, and this is expected to rise due to population ageing and an increase in the prevalence of noncommunicable diseases.

More simply put, a noncommunicable disease is a non-infectious health condition that cannot be spread from person to person.

It also lasts for a long period of time and is known as a chronic disease.

This may well change as we are going through a Covid crisis and finding that many people are struggling with their health both mentally and physically due to the side effects of long-term Covid.

In fact, many organisations who celebrate International Day of Persons with Disabilities this year are choosing to highlight the difficulties that disabled people and their families are facing due to the Covid pandemic.

This year Leonard Cheshire’s theme is ‘Leadership and participation of persons with disabilities toward an inclusive, accessible and sustainable post-Covid-19 world’.

We have some great organisations locally here in Peterborough that support people with disabilities, and I am sure that many of them celebrated on December 3. If you are one of those organisations, I would love to hear what you are doing and how people can get involved.

If you have a disability and are celebrating let me know how you are doing that.

I have contacted PCC to find out if there are any events locally to celebrate the day that they are organising, but my contact tells me that they haven’t heard anything mentioned internally yet!

I’m was in London on December 3 at the Tate Modern Gallery to celebrate the day and to highlight the lack of disability inclusion across the media spectrum.

It’s something I would like to share with you in my next column.

Keep safe everyone and don’t forget to celebrate how amazing you are.