WHAT BEING NEWLY DISABLED TAUGHT ME ABOUT TRAVELLING BY TRAIN.

Hollie Brooks wants train companies to
do more for disabled passengers (Hollie Brooks)

As new research reveals that 40 per cent of UK rail stations are inaccessible to disabled passengers, Hollie Brooks argues for rail companies to do more

Typically, I was out drinking beer and dancing at a gig the night meningitis started to take hold. Because no-one expects their lives to be turned upside down on a Tuesday night, do they? That night changed my life and I spent the summer of 2018 as a wheelchair user and a campaigner for disabled passenger rights on British railways.

When meningitis and sepsis struck in June 2018, everything I ever thought I knew about the world and how to travel around it changed. My usual commute to work on Fleet Street would take me from my picturesque village in Wivenhoe, Essex, to Stratford and a quick journey on the Central Line: the only thing that bothered me would be if a train was delayed by a few minutes.

Like the majority of the population, I had absolutely no idea of the struggle wheelchair users face on a daily basis. Just today, news emerged that more than 40 per cent of UK stations are not accessible to physically disabled people, according to research by disability charity Leonard Cheshire.

By Hollie Brooks.

Full story at Independent.