Justice for Laughing Boy

From an event held at LSBU. By Lloyd Page

The name of this event was ‘Justice for Laughing Boy’, the story of Connor Sparrowhawk. A young man who sadly died of an epileptic seizure whilst taking an unsupervised bath in a NHS unit. We heard from Stephen Unwin, writer and director of ‘Laughing Boy’ and Sara Ryan, Connor’s mum. Also Peter Cronin from Lewisham Speaking Up spoke about what challenges people with learning disabilities face in todays society. Jim Blair and I also contributed to this worthwhile event and I spoke about Aktion T4. Something I was the narrator for is a film called ‘Finding Ivy’ the story of a Scottish Jewish woman who had learning disabilities and was killed by the Nazis in a concentration camp.

One speaker who came all the way from America talked about ‘eugenics’. I found this was very useful and informative. It made me so emotional and related to how the NHS has lots of problems. We need real coproduction and the power to share. People with learning disabilities with lived experience like myself and others should be co-directors together with professionals.