Please post Mary’s film (above) on Facebook and Twitter by
clicking on the title or link to access the Vimeo page - and tell your friends
and family about it.
Mary Laver looks out of her conservatory window, watching the weather change.
She is hungry, and she would like to use the toilet. She wishes she could go
outside and sit in the sunshine – or stretch out her painful legs on the bed.
She can’t do any of these things until her carer arrives in three hours’
time.
She is in a wheelchair with no use of her legs, hands or arms – a literal
prisoner of her body and her home. She is lonely and frightened.
Mary thinks of her past as an independent woman – how she was a Games Maker
at London 2012 and carried the Olympic flame. She thinks of the journey she made
in her power chair from Land’s End to John o’Groats to raise money for the
British Legion. She thinks of walking her dogs, Jack and Molly, with her
carer.
She can’t do any of those things now. She just sits and she waits, and she
looks at the pond at the end of her garden. “It’s the only way I could end my
life,” she thinks.
Worried: Frail Mary meets the Mirror's Ros
Thankfully, Mary doesn’t have to live like this yet. She is doing it for 24
hours for a film she asked us to make.
For now, she still has the Independent Living Fund, which gives her 46 hours
of extra care a week – and allows her to live a fulfilled and dignified
life.
David Cameron wants to take that care away. His Government has closed the ILF
to new users and they have already come after Mary and 18,500 other existing
users.
Only a battle in the Appeal Court has won the ILF a temporary reprieve.
Yesterday, Mary’s film – a collaboration between this column, Kate Belgrave
from False Economy, and Moore Lavan films – was screened in the House of Commons
at an emergency meeting between disabled people and politicians.
One by one, people – including Mary – told MPs including Kate Green, Labour’s
Shadow Minister for Disabled People, that enough is enough.
A former RAF driver from Newcastle, Mary suffers from severe rheumatoid
arthritis. She is completely dependent on a wheelchair to move and on human
beings for everything else. As she puts it: “I’m a bit knackered, really.”
Making the film has been a harrowing window into Mary’s future. Without the
ILF she will be left with one hour of care in the morning, one at lunchtime and,
if she is lucky, overnight care from 10pm.
The Government claims cash-strapped councils will find the money to top up
these hours. Mary and others know they won’t be able to.
Mary lives a very tough life. She has kick-switches to open doors, a hoist, a
drinking tube, a magnifying glass to see her phone and a computer that controls
her television. But otherwise she relies on her carers for everything.
In the film, the reduced care hours immediately take effect. The one hour of
care in the morning barely stretches to a shower. At lunchtime, the hour is so
busy she can’t finish her lunch. Mary has taught herself to control her
arthritis through diet, but there’s no time to cook, only to microwave food.
She has to lie down for the entire lunch hour – and even eat lying down –
because it is her only chance to leave the wheelchair and rest her aching back
and legs.
Without the ILF, Mary will have to give up her two beloved Jack Russells.
Even imagining this scenario makes her break down in tears. Instead, she spends
many hours alone looking out of the window. She can’t use the toilet, have a
coffee or anything to eat, or take medication.
She already knows what this life is like, because she lived it before the ILF
was created.
“I used to watch the seasons change from a picture on the wall reflecting the
window,” she says.
These long silences would be unbearable for any person, but for a woman who
grabs every single opportunity from life, they just leave her wondering why she
is alive.
“I like sitting by my pond,” she tells the camera. “I find the flowing water
relaxing. But then I realised it had this sinister side. It’s quite deep.”
Mary’s story was one of a number of heartbreaking testimonies heard at the
House of Commons yesterday that will all now be passed on to the United Nations
Rapporteur for Disabilities, Shuaib Chalklen, to investigate. The previous day,
scores of disabled people gathered to record hours more.
Meanwhile, Mary is vanishing before our eyes.
Since the Government announced it was ending the ILF, her
weight has dropped from 9st to 6st from the worry.
Mary voted for the Conservative Government and for David Cameron. She trusted
them, she says, with her care. Now, her honesty gives the lie to his
Government’s “welfare reforms”.
And anyone watching her tough, brave life can see why she and thousands of
others will not just lie down and wait to die.
Please post Mary’s film, found at the top of this article, on
Facebook and Twitter by clicking on the title or link to access the Vimeo page -
and tell your friends and family about it. Mirror
