I FEEL I have to comment on the attitude of Mr Whitehead from UKCPS (“Mum-to-be in car park row, Examiner April 3). My wife has a condition called fibromyalgia; in layman’s terms a muscle arthritis.
Due to the nature of this beast she doesn’t qualify for a blue badge, as at its worst, it actually lasts three months and then she slowly begins to lead a more “normal” life, better able to manage everyday things like “walking”.
We, too, have parked in disabled parking spaces (as a normal parking space in most of these newer shopping areas are very, very tight) when she is reduced to being pushed around by me in her wheelchair, as walking (and the majority of every movement) is so painful an exercise for that day!
But hey guess what? Yes she may well be able to walk all by herself the very next day. And yes I am being sarcastic, as people who have never experienced this condition will not understand how dramatically and quickly it changes and alters.
But ask any good rheumatologist about it! Yes, she is well enough to go shopping, but she is just NOT ABLE TO WALK that day. The chances are that she has stayed in all week, looking forward to me, taking her out at the weekend for SHOPPING!
But we will now make sure we join David Lock and his wife and make sure we don’t shop in Huddersfield. We will stick to more sympathetic districts outside Kirklees! Mr Whitehead deserves a “more than his job’s worth” badge. I hope he is never in the position of being disabled in any way, even for a short time. Maybe then he might understand the plight of the “invisible disabled” people like my wife.
Mr Ian Crowther
Beaumont Park
