FEATURE
anything apart from making you feel better for about 20 seconds. The most important thing is to change their attitude, not to tell them what you think of them.
“ I might have a rant later but I can deal with it, however annoyed I am, because sport made me quite thick skinned. But I’ m conscious there are disabled people who find it harder to deal with. If I write to someone on House of Lords headed paper they generally have to respond, so generally when travelling by train I get treated all right – but I know lots of disabled people who don’ t. So if people write to me about bad experiences they’ ve had, I try to help where I can.
“ The reality is that life’ s harder if you’ re disabled. London 2012 absolutely changed attitudes towards Paralympians but it didn’ t change attitudes towards disabled people, nor did it have responsibility to do that.”
As a former athlete, she’ s also a natural campaigner when it comes to encouraging more people to lead a physically active life for the good of their health.“ This is the first generation of kids that will die before their parents because of physical inactivity,” she sighs.
“ Inactivity costs the UK £ 80 billion a year and there
“ London 2012 absolutely changed attitudes towards Paralympians but it didn’ t change attitudes towards disabled people”
– TANNI GREY-THOMPSON
are 37,000 premature deaths a year as a result of obesity. The NHS isn’ t sustainable in its current format so we have to get costs down – and encouraging people to be more active is part of making that happen. That message has to start at the youngest age while children are still in school.”
Although born and raised in Cardiff, Tanni is now very much an adopted Teessider, having followed husband Ian here in 1999, as he worked as a research chemist at the Wilton chemical complex. Having initially lived in Redcar, they moved to Eaglescliffe nearly 10 years ago to make it a little easier for her to catch regular trains to London where she carries out her Parliamentarian duties.
“ Ian proudly tells people that we moved home for the sake of my career, but they assume it was more than
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