[ARCHIVED CONTENT] [senco-forum] Re: Posters

However, Christopher Reeve (aka Superman) was a hugely flawed role model for me and and many other spinal cord injured folks -- as his whole approach was flawed -- and he sent out entirely the wrong message, via the media, and to the general public. His was not a model of any form of acceptance -- only a foolharded belief that he would, personally, once again, become a model 'Superman'. I found him anything but inspiring -- but very infuriating. When he died (prematurely even given his condition) I was not sad (I'm sad to say).
Brendan King

-----Original Message-----
From: richard_cook at blueyonder.co.uk
To: june_marriott at yahoo.co.uk; senco-forum at lists.becta.org.uk
Sent: Sun, 18 Feb 2007 3:49 PM
Subject: RE: [senco-forum] Re: Posters

It's interesting how the notion of 'celebrity' has coloured our responses.
Bob Champion recovered from testicular cancer and went on to win the grand
national.  His autobiograpgy came out as I began my chemotherapy for the
same condition, he was a real inspiration to me, he gave me both comfort and
hope.  I didn't know if I would survive (26 years ago) as the treatment was
very new, my survival was irrelevent, just knowing someone else had been
through the same as I was going through was enough.

Richard

-----Original Message-----
From: senco-forum-bounces at lists.becta.org.uk
[mailto:senco-forum-bounces at lists.becta.org.uk]On Behalf Of June
Marriott
Sent: 18 February 2007 13:47
To: senco-forum at lists.becta.org.uk
Subject: [senco-forum] Re: Posters

Not sure about the benefits of presenting famous folk with "problems".
Everyone knows that celebrity sufferers have much bigger issues than the
rest of us
  Daily events that most of us just get on with are inflated to "hell",
"tragedy", "nightmare" etc. A celeb with an illness or personal problem is
"brave", "a battler" and so on.

  According to one women's mag, Lesley Garrett has a pelvic kidney, of which
she takes special care. Mine was spotted during a routine scan and, not
being a Celebrity Kidney, requires no such attention and is of
disappointingly little interest to the medical profession. I have battled
with the "hell" of my personal "tragedy" all these years (okay, I didn't
actually know it existed) without so much as a newspaper interview - huh!

  The notion of becoming "somebody" despite disability is quite offensive.
It's such a massive leap too - for many children, just fitting in with their
classmates and not feeling self-conscious would be enough. Of course, it can
be taken another way - you are not alone - but that could be better conveyed
by showing ordinary people, doing ordinary things.

  I also have a sore finger - little one on left hand - or, as I prefer to
say, I'm having a "sore finger scare". Hopefully, with the help of my family
and friends I'll get through this. And yes, I do really appreciate the
support of my many fans - it makes it all worthwhile.

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