Here we are already in May and I am about to give you your fifth challenge. Nearly halfway through the year already, so with the help you have given, we will surely have made a difference.

Now for “M”. I am going to focus your energies into thinking about and acting upon issues around mobility.

Most of the time people without a disability take being able to move around freely for granted, but for people living with a disability it is a very different matter.

Planning and being ready for all eventualities is a normal part of their lives and nothing can be taken for granted. And, of course, every disability brings a different challenge and has an impact on how mobile people can be.

But how about having two challenges to deal with? I am particularly thinking about people who are both deaf and blind because they are unable to use one sense to compensate for the loss of the other.

So you can see this group has unique and severe difficulties.

For instance, how do they manage to communicate, how do they access information, how mobile can they be, how can they access public transport and how do they know how to find the shop they want? Crossing the road presents difficulties as they can neither see nor hear the traffic light signs put there to assist disabled people to cross safely.

Gradually banks are becoming aware that ATMs need to have audio messages to assist people with sight difficulties, but what use is that to deaf/blind people?

What is the answer, because it is just as important for this group to be part of the community as anyone else; they didn’t choose to be disabled.

The answer is that there are communication guides available.

Problem solved?

No, certainly not.

Why? Because social care is massively under-funded and, with the present Government calling for more and more cuts, this valuable assistance will not be funded.

Does the Government listen when disability organisations campaign heavily and take petitions to Parliament? No they don’t. Can we really stand back and see people driven into isolation and from there into despair and depression? We must stand up and be counted and not be one of the ‘I’m all right Jack’ brigade.

It only takes a minute to go from being fully mobile to becoming disabled and tomorrow it could be you, as I pointed out to a person on a bus one day when she marched down the aisle and told me to hurry up.

We have a recent example, in the aftermath of the bombing in Boston, where a number of active young people now face a very different life; the thought is saddening.

So what am I asking you to do?

To start, try to find out more about deaf/blindness, be willing to sign any petition that calls for Government help, understanding and support and, if you are really brave, contact your MP using either the information in this article or any other facts that you have found out.

Join me in making a difference.