Survival Guides
From The Bedfordshire Times weekly newspaper
My mother's disability showed me the generosity of the many people who volunteer and work for statutory bodies in Bedfordshire and Buckinghamshire. It took me nearly three years to piece together the information and help available in North Bedfordshire and so I vowed to make it much much easier for others to access these helping organisations.
Once I had grasped who did what, where and how much they charged I wrote down their contacts and a brief description of what they could provide. I created subject headings and a talented local artist, Sian Ellis, came up with the wonderful 'Fifties-style illustrations to brand them. Another friend, Chris Ward, used his layout skills to fit these together and Hilary MacDonald indexed the entries to produce a simple-to-read, easy-to-navigate A4 document.
Then we had to get it to the people who needed the guides. The internet wasn't around in 1990 and so that meant a brochure would have to be printed - requiring money; enough to print several thousand to cover North Bedfordshire. I got myself into the local paper by placing a wheelchair at the foot of some stairs to emphasise a typical problem faced by the disabled. After writing to umpteen businesses, the local multinational Texas Instruments said that they would come onboard, print the 7,000 copies in-house and pay for its distribution.
Me, the illustrator Sian Ellis and Cliff Keys of Texas Instruments at the launch of the first Survival Guide at the company's European HQ on Manton Heights, Bedford
Texas Instruments had made Bedford their first European base in 1956 and had developed strong local links over the years. Many of their previous employees had become disabled and so they wanted to do something positive to help. The launch of the first Survival Guide created a big splash, with local and national radio present and a couple of thousand flew off local library shelves in the first few months. After that, the guides were available free-of-charge from doctors' surgeries, social workers, occupational therapists and voluntary organisations.
The original concept was that a free, hardcopy guide in the hands of people with disabilities and carers, empowers them. That it would allow people, in the comfort of their own home, to browse and discover help which they may not have thought available before. This turned out to be the case and there were many phone calls from all over the country asking for copies. I'm not sure how many other areas copied the concept, I only know for definite the local areas that I helped set up.
Whitbread was a big local employer and backed, along with Luton Borough Council, the first Survival Guide for South Bedfordshire. The first two guides covered the 250,000 population of Bedfordshire and the estimated 2,000 people who became newly disabled each year in the county. Texas Instruments would sponsor the next North Bedfordshire guide and then Luton Borough Council shouldered the cost for the follow-up guide in Luton. By now the research for the guides was being undertaken by local people with experience of disability and Carol Mews researched the second Luton guide with a back up panel to check, index and knock it into shape (please click on each Survival Guide cover to get more detail and on the 1991 one to see the full issue)
Preparatory sketch and finished picture for the Benefits section
Granada sponsored the next two North Bedfordshire guides and then Milton Keynes created their own, with research undertaken by Dave Crawford, new images created by Juliet Corley and a new front cover designed by Robert Purnell. The guides were eventually replaced by local dedicated information providers (Bedfordshire's Disability Resource Centre and Milton Keynes' Centre for Integrated Living) and the internet. However, for a decade, for these populations at least, the Survival Guide plugged an information gap.
For me it was a big kick to see these brochures succeed and Mum felt better going to launches and seeing that her disability had led to something good. Unfortunately, a second big stroke at the age of 64, meant that she became paralysed from the chest down and her care became too personal for me to manage. We fought for her to stay at home and for ten years, although mostly confined to bed, she enjoyed the company of a succession of carers who came to live with her in fortnightly stints. I visited each fortnight too and stayed overnight to sort out stuff and keep the show on the road. Some of the carers were wild and wonderful and special mention goes to Gloria, Diane and Delia. Thank you soooo much! And to the many other carers who did more than their duty and brought to her life interest and care. (Read more about Rosemary's life through this Guardian obituary.)
The logical next step for me was to become a paid publications person and I was very fortunate to join the Spinal Injuries Association as their publications manager in 1999. They were based in Muswell Hill, Jenny my partner, lived in Muswell Hill, so for me it was a perfect North London mashup.
