Joseph Carey Merrick, born in Leicester on 5th August 1852, is better known as the Elephant Man. Through horrible physical deformities which were almost impossible to describe, he spent much of his life exhibited as a fairground freak until even nineteenth-century sensibilities could take no more. Hounded, persecuted and starving, he ended up one day at Liverpool Street Station where he was rescued, housed and fed by the distinguished surgeon Frederick Treves. To Treves' surprise, he discovere...
At the age of thirty, just as everything was falling into place for him, Lee Pesky died of brain cancer. For his father, Alan, grief came with the realization that he had lost the chance to love Lee as he was-not as he wanted him to be. Ambitious, successful, and always striving for more, Alan had a hard time relating to a son who struggled with learning disabilities at a time when there was little understanding or help for kids who had them. Their relationship was complicated, and now, Lee was...
This book tells the stories of nine disabled leaders who, by force of personality and concrete achievement, have made us think differently about disability. Whatever direction they have come from, they share a common will to change society so that disabled people get a fair deal. There are compelling biographies of:· Sir Bert Massie: public servant· Lord (Jack) Ashley: Labour politician· Rachel Hurst: activist and campaigner· Tom Shakespeare: academic· Phil Friend: entrepreneur and business cons...
Mental Health. Suicide. Pain. Uncertainty. In her long awaited autobiography, Shatika opens herself to the world. She faced suicide attempts, overdoses, abuse and trauma, and in this book, she gives her audience a real look into what her life has truly been. She is a warrior, she writes, and she wrote. Read along as she laughs and cries to 2019.
Fighting Blind
by Ivan Castro,Jim DeFelice and Ivan Castro and Jim DeFelice
"Fighting was a practiced routine for Lieutenant Ivan Castro. But when a mortar round struck the rooftop of his sniper's post in Iraq, he found himself in a battle more difficult than even he could have imagined. The direct hit killed two other soldiers and nearly claimed Castro's life as well. Mangled by shrapnel and badly burned, Castro was medevac'd to Germany more dead than alive. His lungs were collapsed. He couldn't hear. One eye had been blown out, the nerve to the other severed. In the w...
Why do we fall ill? How do we get better? When his two-year-old develops epilepsy, Shane Neilson, a doctor, struggles to obtain timely medical care for his son. Saving shares his family's journey through the medical system, and also Shane's own personal journey as a father who feels powerless when faced with his child's illness. It entwines these stories with Shane's personal history of mental illness as a child and his professional experience with disability. By exploring the theme of family, S...
With humor and openness she describes her denial of his deafness, her frustrations in dealing with family and experts, and her ultimate decision to put her son in a special school. Parents of all children will identify with both the joys and problems Forecki has experienced.
