Thankfully that prophecy of doom didn’t come about and when Kitty was one, we moved home to Berkshire, mostly to be near to family but also because we really needed a fresh start. Kitty continued to grow healthier and, although she remains severely disabled and likes to give us huge scares from time to time, she is today a bright, strong, young woman of 23.

There will always be people who think disabled children and young people are nothing but a drain on our society. The fact is though, it is the inefficiency of the provision that causes the cost to our service providers. Departments that don’t work together, the bare minimum being provided, ineffective education systems, paltry care provision, a dearth of opportunities and, often, a refusal to support those organisations who are working to support the families concerned, trying to create meaningful activities for the children and young people and an inability to see beyond the end of the current budget. Ask any parent of a disabled child to sum up what life is really like.

The word ‘fight’ would come at the top of most of our lists. Day in, day out. Thank God we have our children to hold at the end of the day to make it all worthwhile. Without them, we’d never cope.​If only people would only look more closely, they would see the value of disabled young people. The important life-lessons they bring. All perceived ideals of life such as money, power, possessions and appearance are gunned down completely by disabled children. Such values seem completely ridiculous and off-course. Disabled young people do not have and in most cases never will have any of these things, but something much more important shines from them. They have wisdom, strength, dignity, unwavering hope and an often quiet, often quite elated certainty of their own worth.

How many of us can say the same?​

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