Not short of something to say: Broken leg

Contact details

As well as being a freelance writer I am also a qualified counsellor and I work for a low cost counselling service in Exeter and for the NHS Gender Clinic also in Exeter.

Simultaneously, I work as a Disability Member of the First Tier Tribunal, Social Entitlement Chamber sitting on disability benefit tribunals on an ad hoc basis.

As a writer I specialise in writing about disability and health.

My articles have been published in the Guardian, Times, OUCH! [BBC disability website], Disability Now, Broadcast, Lifestyle [Motability magazine], The Practising Midwife, 'Junior, Pregnancy & Baby', Writers' News, Able, Getting There [Transport for London magazine], Junior, Community Care, DPPi [Disability, Pregnancy & Parenthood International]. I have also had articles commissioned by Daily Mail.

For more information about me and for examples of my writing please see below.

If you would like me to write an article for your publication, about any aspect of disability, please do get in touch:

emma@emmabowler.co.uk

Monday, February 4, 2008

Broken leg

My oldest son Archie broke his leg before Christmas, nothing too original about that apart from the fact he's only 3 and it was broken as he stuck his leg out as he was pushed through a doorway in his pushchair. If that had had happened to a non-disabled child the leg/hip would have just have accomodated the angle but because Archie has the same disability and inflexibility as me, it broke.

Six weeks down the line the cast is off and we are now trying to encourage him to walk again. He only started walking with confidence at about 2 1/2 years old so it now it feels like he's never walked... I know it will come back again but it's so hard to watch him struggle to build up the strength and confidence again. It brings it home how difficult it is to have a disabled child moreover a child who's inherited your own disability.

Saying that it took me 34 years to break any bone and I did that skiing so maybe I deserved it!?

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On becoming a writer

After over 10 years as a BBC TV programme maker working on disability, documentary, entertainment and children's programmes I left to have 2 children.

Having decided that the full on lifestyle of programme making and being a parent wasn't for me I decided to utilise the skills, experience and knowledge gleaned from my BBC career to became a freelance writer.

Because of my personal experience of disability I chose to specialise by writing about all aspects of disability – from parenting to sport, clothes shopping to legislation, what’s in the news to specific aspects of particular impairments.

All too often the media portrayal of disabled people and disability issues doesn’t quite hit the mark, the tone is off, the language is wrong; the overall effect leaves the public none the wiser.

As a disabled writer my aim is to be positive, informative and accurate, that doesn’t have to mean dry and boring – a bit of humour can go a long way!