Dyspraxia Awareness Day 2003

Introduction

The first ever Dyspraxia Awareness Day took place on Monday 7th of July 2003. Below is a diary detailing what I did to raise awareness on that day.

Tuesday 1st July 2003

Today, I made posters giving information about Dyspraxia Awareness Day and distributed them around my local area.

Sunday 6th July 2003

One day left until Dyspraxia Awareness Day. Final Preparations are going ahead for the big day, the highlight of which is Toby Friedner's outside broadcast from my house. I've had my window decorated with posters and flags to "advertise" Dyspraxia Awareness Day and Toby's programme, "MK Breakfast".

Monday 7th July 2003

Up early (5:00 am. Groan!). Toby and Karen arrived at 6:00, in the radio car. They parked in the driveway, put up the aerial on the car (which is very impressive!) and then rushed to and fro laying cables, bringing in microphones, etc.

6:30, The show began! Toby introduced Dyspraxia as, "It effects 7% of the population but I bet you can't guess what it is!".

At 6:40, Toby did the "paper review" and I read out an interesting story that I'd found about three jellyfish which were spotted on a beach, in Dorset! At 7:00, Toby interviewed Mum and I about what dyspraxia is and how how it effects me.

Later on in the programme, we discussed Home Education, talked to various "experts" on dyspraxia, including Jan Long from the Dyspraxia Foundation and Dr Roy Rutherford from the DDAT. Toby even spoke to Sam, who is a dyspraxic child who lives in New Zealand, and originally contacted me through my website.

Throughout the show, Toby played pieces of my Audio documentary. Listen by clicking the links below.

Toby Relaxes in our cat run

"Listening in"!

The show was brilliant. I think we really helped to raise awareness of dyspraxia. Even I learnt something today! Winston Churchill may have suffered from Dyspraxia!

Karen Shrosbery, Toby Friedner and I stand by the radio car!

Tuesday 8th July 2003

Woke up this morning, to discover my website visitor's total went up by 150 that night! ;-)

Audio Clips from the Show

Click here to listen to the entire edited show (~48mins)

Handover with Justin Dealey
Introduction
Morning papers
1st Caller, weather report, Helen's interview.
Introduction to part 1 of my 'Audio Diary'
Part 1 - Introduction - What is Dyspraxia?
Interview with Roy Rutherford, DDAT.
Introduction to part 2.
Part 2 - Living with Dyspraxia.
Interview with Allie Willer, Education Otherwise.
Interview with Helen and Matt about home education.
The story of Moppet.
About Ragdolls.
Interview with Jan Long, Dyspraxia Foundation.
Tish the Fish...
Introduction to part 3.
Part 3 - The Future...
About this website!
Phone call to Sam in New Zealand.
Caller, Tony about his daughter.
Goodbye.

A big thankyou to Toby and Karen. Without them, we wouldn't have been able to spread awareness of Dyspraxia as much as we did.