Cerebral Palsy Scotland

Milly MacKinnon | Centre Manager

Milly had a successful 30 year career in IT, delivering and implementing projects for many companies including Capita and NHS Education Scotland.

In 2019, Milly moved to the charity sector as the operations manager for the Renfrewshire Foodbank, playing a key role in operations during the Covid-19 lockdown, ensuring services continued to run for the most vulnerable.

Joining Cerebral Palsy Scotland as the Centre Manager in September 2021. Milly looks after the day to day running of the centre, managing the administration team and providing support to the CEO.

In her spare time, Milly is very active with Girlguiding in Paisley having been a volunteer for over 20 years, running rainbow, brownie, guide and ranger units.

 

Rachael Webb | Head of Fundraising and Communications

Rachael has worked in fundraising and marketing within the third sector from 2011. She previously held the role of Head of Engagement at Terrence Higgins Trust, successfully delivering on a varied programme of fundraising channels. Prior to this, she worked for 10 years in fundraising at Great Ormond Street Children’s Hospital in London. Rachael lives with her husband and two children in Glasgow.

Stephanie Fraser | CEO

Stephanie Fraser joined Cerebral Palsy Scotland as Chief Executive in January 2012. Stephanie has extensive experience within the neurological sector. She was involved in the creation and implementation of the Scottish Government’s Neurological Framework for Action as Chair of the Scottish Government’s National Advisory Group for Neurological Conditions from 2016 until March 2025 and has been a member of the Executive Committee of the Neurological Alliance of Scotland. She is also a current Board Member of Creative Scotland and the British Library.

More children to get a Bright Beginning, thanks to National Lottery

We are delighted to announce that Cerebral Palsy Scotland will receive £164,194 from The National Lottery Community Fund to provide specialist therapy and other support to children with cerebral palsy and their families in three areas of Scotland.

Over the next two and a half years, our Bright Beginnings project will work with 135 children aged 18 months-16 years and their families in Argyll and Bute, the Scottish Borders and the Western Isles.

As well as providing specialist therapy, children and their families taking part in the project will also be able to join interactive family workshops and peer support networks.

This holistic approach will help children and their families to maximise independent living skills, support emotional wellbeing and also help those children that are making the challenging move from primary to secondary school.

Commenting on the award, Isla Campbell Lupton, Cerebral Palsy Scotland’s Fundraising and Communications Manager, said:

“We are deeply grateful to the National Lottery Community Fund in Scotland and National Lottery players, who have given us this opportunity to make such a positive impact on the children taking part in Bright Beginnings.

“This is an extremely challenging time for charities, so we are very thankful to receive this award, and will continue to keep raising much needed funds so we can support even more children and adults with cerebral palsy all across Scotland.”

Using head switches to drive Derrick, my powerchair

In this blog, Fraser Somerville talks about his journey towards driving his powerchair independently using head switches.

From the age of six I got my first wheelchair which was a manual chair called Chunc. I was getting pushed around all my childhood and I didn’t particularly like it because it had an impact on my independence.

At the age of 15 I got my first powerchair which I named Derrick. I controlled my power chair using a joystick on a tray. This didn’t work well for me because I have a tendency to swipe my arms due to my involuntary movements and it was hard for me to get a good grip on the joystick. Everything came to a halt because of Covid being in the way.

In 2022 I had a referral to see if there was another method I could use for driving my power chair. My bioengineer suggested I use head switching and I was really up for trialing it out.

A couple of months later my powerchair journey started all over again but this time my head was doing the driving. I was really getting on well with the head switches but they were clicking all the time when I was eating or drinking or doing an activity. I looked into head arrays which has three separate bits of the headrest and the headrest was a lot softer to lay my head on.

The day had finally arrived when the headset was put on to my wheelchair. I absolutely loved it, I was getting on really well with it until one day the right driving pad decided to break and it started to drive on its own which was really scary because I had no control over where the chair was going. Oh no. Alarm bells started to ring and I had a feeling this product wasn’t compatible with my involuntary movements.

Fast forward three headrests later I decided to revert back to my original clicky switches as I had lost the trust of the head arrays. I felt more comfortable. However, that was short lived as on holiday the power chair went back to its old ways of not stopping when I wanted it to.

Now I feel like history is repeating itself as I have had to replace several forward switches due to my strength and my involuntary movements. I’ve now gained a fourth switch which I can access via my chin, this is my emergency stop as I felt it was necessary for when the chair decides to do it’s own thing.

After having several meetings with my bioengineer, we have decided to part ways on the existing buttons and replace them with enclosed proximity switches which I hope helps my situation going forward. I will keep you all posted on my progress.