Rose was born alongside her twin brother in February 2021. Both twins had some difficulty breathing after they were born, but while her brother stabilised, Rose had an extended period without oxygen. This damaged her brain and caused cerebral palsy.

Rose and her family first attended our parent and baby class, Baby Buds. When she was two, our physiotherapists and speech and language therapist visited her locally in Fife, working with Rose’s family and nursery teachers, over several sessions. This year, Rose and her parents attended a communications course at Cerebral Palsy Scotland. Rose’s mum Louise tells us, “The communications course we attended recently was phenomenal. Rose loved it and wanted to demonstrate everything she had leaned at home.”

Rose uses a wheelchair and a walker. She struggles with speech, but loves to sing along to songs she recognises. She will start primary school later this year.

Louise explained, “What’s different about the care and support we receive from Cerebral Palsy Scotland is that they are specialists. They aren’t working across all different conditions, and they know exactly what our children’s needs are. Rose had a seizure in 2024 and we called Cerebral Palsy Scotland straight away for advice. If we didn’t have Cerebral Palsy Scotland, we would feel very lonely.”

Please make a donation now to our Cerebral Palsy Awareness Month campaign.

Kirsty Colquhoun is a doctor and Sub Dean of University of Glasgow Medical School. She also has cerebral palsy. At school, Kirsty was discouraged by her guidance teacher when she expressed an interest in becoming a doctor, “He told me, ‘Well I’m colourblind, so I couldn’t become an electrician’ implying I couldn’t be a doctor because I have cerebral palsy.”

Kirsty has gone on to have a successful medical career and is now a consultant in the NHS. Kirsty tells us, “I’m not defined by my disability. I’m not a ‘disabled doctor’. I’m Kirsty the doctor.”

“Often when children with cerebral palsy reach 18 and they are discharged from children’s services, they fall into the abyss. If you are an adult with Parkinson’s or MS, you continue to have access to healthcare physicians who understand your condition and can help you.

With cerebral palsy, there is none of that.

As both someone with cerebral palsy and someone working in the medical field, I can tell you that Cerebral Palsy Scotland bridges the gap for the many adults with cerebral palsy who struggle to access specialist services.”

Please make a donation now to our Cerebral Palsy Awareness Month campaign.

My name is Barry Smith, and I am 46 years old. I suffer from Cerebral Palsy, which is a physical disability. Because I suffer from this, I use a power chair, and I have a lightweight voice output communication aid, so if people don’t understand what I’m trying to say to them, I can type it in. I lived by myself, but I received support from SDS and ILF to help with tasks that I found challenging on my own, such as feeding and cooking for myself, and I appreciated it more. Down to me having this, I get SDS and ILF  funding to help me get support for what I can’t do for myself.

Last July, I went to TRNSMT at Glasgow Green for two days, and all year I couldn’t wait for it to come back around again, so I saved up for it. One thing I remember from last year is that when I went into the Disabled Toilet, I found it was tough to close the door behind over. When I went back again this year, they had a van which had a wheelchair lift.. What I saw this year was they made the access better for disability people in the disabled bit; they had a tent for everyone could go and tell out. Three more things to talk about on the access, they had people sign for deaf people to the music, which I think was very good. One more thing, a Beatson volunteer can get you food and soft drinks, you only need to give them your bank card and they chip and pin, but you can’t ask them to get you an over-18’s drink, which I think is right because some people can’t drink because they’re on medication.

The music over the two days, which was the Saturday and the Sunday, was out of this world. Some of the bands were playing that I had never heard of before, but they sounded so good. I can’t wait to go back next year.  Before I end this report, I would like to thank four people who made this happen for me: my Mum, Laure, my PA, Paul, my PA, and the accessibility

My name is Rachel Collie, and I am 20 years old. I have Spastic Diplegia Cerebral Palsy. For me this means that I am a full-time wheelchair user, unable to walk as well as a milder impact on my arms and hands. I have been a Cerebral Palsy Scotland service user for nearly 18 years.

I am currently a third year student studying Business Management at Glasgow Caledonian University. This Cerebral Palsy Awareness Month I thought it was important for me to share what my university experience with cerebral palsy has been like so far, both the good and the bad.

There are a lot of worries that come with starting university and living with CP. My main worries were wheelchair access, space in lecture and seminar halls, fire exits and the location of toilets, and support arrangements.

I love the university experience overall! I really enjoy lectures because they allow you to gain the basic knowledge around a broad topic, which then allows me to carry out my own research to gain a deeper understanding of the topic I have a specific interest in or that will benefit me in my future coursework as well as my career.

I enjoy seminars because they have, and still do allow me to meet new friends as well as learning about different points of view on a certain topic through having really interesting conversations with people from all walks of life.

If I am being totally honest, I was very anxious about starting university which is totally normal for anyone but not least for someone with cerebral palsy with all the extra worries that it comes with. Certainly, part of the reason for my worry about starting was about support. At school I was used to one-to-one support which was fully organised for me with no say from me. A lot of people will view that as a negative which I also did at the time by the way! However, I was yet to realise how difficult it can be to find a personal assistant (PA) that could meet my needs as well as both of us getting along really well.

At university you have a disability advisor who supports you with recruiting someone to support you along with completing the application for funding for your PAs and any equipment needed. They also liaise with the funding body if there are any additional items needed.

One of the main difficulties in my experience of finding a PA is that most PAs are either self-employed or employed by an agency. Why can this be a problem you may ask? It can be hard because of their employment status – they have the opportunity to pick exactly what ‘shifts’ they would like to do meaning if there is a ‘shift’ they don’t want to work they have no obligation to! This can mean needing more than one PA may be much more likely, to be able to make sure that all your university timetable can be covered.

Another difficulty is the university timetable itself. This is because every trimester when you are given a new timetable there is not much advance notice of the timetable before the new term begins. This is difficult because it means both me and my PAs have no ability to plan our lives as I can’t give them advance notice of the hours I require them to work. This may mean that I lose out because my PAs have already booked other work as they are self-employed and need to make sure they have enough work to maintain a good income. If this happens, I have to use an agency to find a PA who is able to support me at university. This may sound scary, but I have found a reliable agency who have always supported me to the best of their ability. It’s not as scary as you think, if you are at university and need to use an agency. To find support my advice would be to use one which is well known as having a large number of staff because this will mean it is more likely that they will have a member of staff who is able to meet your needs and who you get along well with. If you don’t get on with someone don’t feel pressure to keep working with them. Let the agency know and they will help you to find someone more suited to you.

Although it may seem that my university experience has been mostly negative that is definitely not the case! There are, and have been, lots of positives. One of the main positives is that I have found two amazing PAs who I get on with so well and who have made a positive difference to my whole university experience! Another positive is that my PAs allow me to be more independent and experience things I would not have been able to without them. And my final positive that I feel I need to share with you comes from my university experience is the friends that I have made. I have made friends for life! Its amazing to have great friends who have the same passion as you.

Even though there have been negatives with my university journey overall university has been both a positive and exciting experience! So go ahead and don’t be put off by thinking it will be difficult because you happen to have a disability.

What would make the move to university easier for disabled students would be a proper transition programme to allow the items I have mentioned to be sorted/explored before university begins. This would make the move much more enjoyable and increase the excitement to going to university.

I hope this article helps you realise that you can attend and enjoy university with cerebral palsy.