Leonard's story
We're all guilty of not asking for help when we need it - but approaching caba for support can have a huge impact on your quality of life, and also on the quality of life of the people around you.
I had polio as a child, and since 1952 I've had no use of my legs, relatively weak arms and various other weaknesses that impact on my breathing. These disabilities haven't held me back and I entered accountancy when I was 18. After I had sufficient experience with a firm I started my own practice - I mostly looked after small businesses and individuals. Then, in 1995 I felt it was time for a change and worked in various senior roles with disability organisations. Ultimately I did 10 years of charity management and got an OBE for services to disabled people.
I've always driven to work, and I had various techniques for getting myself from my wheelchair into my adapted car, but I was becoming weaker and I knew that I would soon need a vehicle that I could drive while sitting in my wheelchair. Because of my work I knew this was entirely possible, but I also knew that it was extremely expensive.
The Department for Work and Pensions were able to pay for half of the purchase. It was caba that helped me with the other half. They saw that it was essential to my independence and career and dealt with it very efficiently.
I didn't have much contact with caba for a while then, but it was good to know they were there in the background, should I need them. Then, a year ago, I spoke to them again. My wife and I were facing some real challenges in our home. She has Cerebral Palsy and the house we live in was specially built for people with disabilities. But the lift was becoming increasingly unreliable, which was quite a cause of stress for us both.
There were so many occasions where we waited for emergency engineers - one of us would be stuck upstairs, the other downstairs. More than once we were both stuck upstairs for so long we had to get extra care staff to come in and provide meals. We were also paying pretty significant call-out fees every time it went wrong. The engineers kept saying it had to be replaced, but when we got a quote, it was for more than we could afford. Not having the lift was a worrying prospect for us. We would lose a lot of our independence and might even have been forced into residential care.
Our case worker at caba was super. Really well qualified to understand what was going on. Very rapidly she arranged for caba to fund the replacement of the lift. Also, she just knew what questions to ask. For example, she asked us to provide costs for the redecoration that would be necessary once the lift had been changed - things we hadn't even considered.
I'm so glad we approached caba - I think we are all guilty of not asking for help when we need it - but I'm proof that approaching caba for support can have a huge impact on your quality of life, and also on the quality of life of the people around you. Whatever you need - whether it's advice or support, you have to ask. That's the first step.