Health & Disability
When people are pushed to the margins by a lack of accessibility, these people fight their corner in a host of different ways
91 Bede House
Bede House in Southwark, South London is a charity helping disadvantaged people play their part in society. It has multiple projects, such as Bede Centre, where they enable adults with learning disabilities to be active and volunteer – for example, to help elderly people with household chores or as travel buddies. At the Starfish Project, they support survivors of domestic abuse. Their nominator wrote: “Bede does so much. What unites their activities is a desire, like Big Issue, to ‘provide a hand up not a hand out’ and enable people pushed to the edge.”
bedehouse.org.uk
92 Ability Bow Gym
Ability Bow is a charity that provides specialist exercise for people with disabilities or complex health conditions. People living with ill health can experience multiple barriers to exercise, and Ability Bow tries to remove these by working with its members in individual one-to-one sessions. The East London-based gym has a waiting list of over 100 people from Tower Hamlets and neighbouring boroughs.
Their nominator said: “This small team does amazing care for those people coming to them.”
abilitybow.org
93 Keisha Holmes, 19
YOUNG CHANGEMAKER
Holmes, from Peterborough, lives with multiple sclerosis, and was forced to use food banks because a government policy leaves disabled and severely ill people waiting months for their full universal credit payments. She is fighting for change so that others get the support they need, rather than being plunged into poverty. Holmes started a petition calling on the government to scrap the three-month “relevant period” for the limited capacity for work related activity (LCWRA) element of universal credit. In an interview with Big Issue reporter Isabella McRae in 2023 Holmes said: “I know I’m not the only person [this is happening to]. I’m just the only person that’s tough enough to fight it. It could happen to anyone. At any point in life, someone can become disabled. No one is an exception. I didn’t expect to become disabled at 15.”
Sign the petition at bit.ly/3u3VCrL
94 Thomas Howard
Accessibility campaigner Thomas Howard, 27, organised free screenings at his local cinema in Bury St Edmunds to create inclusive spaces for individuals facing financial challenges and those with sensory difficulties. As well as organising screenings at
