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Star Letter

In the Sept/Oct issue of Able you have an article on insurance, which includes a section on travel insurance and recommends people should use specialist insurance companies.

I have severe rheumatoid arthritis and have recently been through the tortuous process of obtaining travel insurance, trying both specialist and
non-specialist insurance companies. I found the best quote for an annual multi-trip policy was from AXA Insurance and that the specialist companies I tried were either far more expensive or would only provide single trip cover. You do, of course, have to go through the medical screening process, but this was quick and easy and the quote was immediate.

On the subject of insurance medical screening in general, these seem to be some sort of online questionnaire. You have to answer either ‘yes’ or ‘no’ to
the questions, and there is no opportunity to qualify any of the answers.
I am sure that this quite often implies that the risk is greater than it actually is and, therefore, the premiums (relating to perceived rather than actual risk) higher than they need be. Perhaps insurance companies, especially those that specialise in insurance for disabled people, could look for a more accurate method of assessing risk.

Barbara Murray
By email

I agree wholeheartedly with your reader Roger Fownes on the matter of disability payments. While I welcome the government’s approach of giving more employment rights and fair treatment to disabled people, I feel the move is more of a cost cutting exercise for the government itself. But believe me Roger, children are suffering too... their claims are also being cut. And their parents and carers are having to fight for benefits to which they are entitled.

On another point, I would like to send a message of congratulations and good luck to Aisha Pankhania on her wheelchair attachment designs. I could have done with these 17 years ago as a new mother with a young baby, also caring for my own mother, who uses a wheelchair. Trying to juggle the wheelchair and a baby buggy was frustrating and complicated indeed!

I have three requests for Aisha: design something that will allow the attachment of a buggy to the wheelchair either in tandem or side-by-side, and design the small baby cradle seat so that it attaches to a mobility scooter. And finally, can you design something that attaches a child’s buggy to a mobility scooter?

L J Alexander
Northwich

I am writing to express my disagreement with Gordon Brown’s position on the disability slave trade.

I’ve looked after my wife now for 25 years. Until 1991, when I was diagnosed with angina while I was working part-time, I was frowned on because I worked. When I became an OAP in 2003, I was written to by the Pension Credit to say if I wanted to do a little job I could go stacking shelves or something like. Before I was a pensioner, looking after my paraplegic wife with all the allowances and DLA support I was better off on average. Since 2003 that all stopped. I just get a basic pension of £101 per week plus £30 credit. I have a small pension from the university where I was a porter of £31 per month which I get taxed on.

Like myself, my wife is on DLA, but most of it goes on a Motability car which we cannot do without. People have mentioned we should get paid for looking after people such as my wife. Somebody suggested £100 per week. I would then be employed and would have to pay further tax.

I think Gordon Brown should be magnanimous and give us carers a limited grant per month such as £80 which I think would somewhat alleviate matters.

Mr R Law
Ely

I’d like to thank Melissa Holmes for giving an accurate report of just some of my exploits in the article on Amputees in Action (Sept/Oct edition). Although I haven’t yet participated in a casualty simulation exercise, I have done the training course and I’m waiting for an opportunity to put that into practice.

To set the record straight and to give a true picture of the setting up of Amputees in Action, it’s important to give credit to two other amputees who were not mentioned in Able’s article. They were founder members and very influential in its launch, and without their generosity and financial contributions, this agency couldn’t even have started. They are Olaf Jones (an arm amputee) and Tony Tomlinson (a leg amputee).

In 1998 Tony and Olaf met at Headley Court, a Forces rehabilitation centre in Surrey. Later, Tony started taking part in many films as an extra/stuntman, the first of which was Gladiator. While he was filming in Mexico with John Pickup, Simon Crane, a stunt coordinator, said he was looking for amputees for film and stunt work. So Amputees in Action was formed in April 2004 with Paul Burns, John Pickup, Tony and Olaf as founder members.

Peggy Simmons
Bedford