Down syndrome October is Down Syndrome Awareness Month. I write this post in the city where my daughter Kirsty who has Down Syndrome was born in 2001. She was 5 months old when we left London. We haven’t lived here for almost 19 years but have continued to visit family or attend modelling events and auditions several times a year- pre Covid 19, of course.
The nature of our visit this time isn’t a social one sadly
However, I am reminded once again about our time in London all those years ago, driving past the borough we lived in; pointing out to Kirsty where list to data we bought her first car seat and the park we took her to the day before she was admitted for her cardiac surgery at Great Ormond Street.
In my book ‘Our Family’s Journey Through Disability and Cancer’ ,which was released on the 19th of October , I share our moments from when we were first told Kirsty had through childhood to reaching adulthood last year.
When I was growing up
I remember getting to know a young lady with Down Syndrome. She can’t remember her name but I often saw her at church. I used to think to aluminum door components myself why would anyone treat her differently. I was a teenager then. She was a young lady like any other young lady I knew. I saw her as someone with a great personality and content with her life. She also had a supportive family.
However I also remember driving past a ‘house’ or a ‘centre’ as people called it, on my way to school. It was a place where children and young people with Down Syndrome spent their days. I never visited it but I just remember people referring to it as a day care centre.
My impression of it was
That the kids in the centre did not go to school and were sale leads there for the day as their parents went to work. They were seen as kids with a learning disability and therefore not able to be educated or hold a job in the future.