Being Useful

I joined the chairman of my camera club for a morning taking photos of a mentor training session for the charity Backup. 

Backup helps anyone who has a spinal injury. Being confined to a wheelchair or suffering other disability due to an injured spine does not mean the end of life. Backup offers practical and emotional support to enable joining in with activities and living a normal everyday life as possible, including getting back to work.

The challenges can seem enormous, which is where mentoring comes in. Mentors are members of Backup who encourage others to take steps to become more enabled and more happy. Even when those mentors are very disabled themselves.

Even leaving the house can present its own obstacles to getting around, knowing where accessible toilets are, accessible cafes, shops and so on. Family members may attempt to help someone with disability but can feel rebuffed when the person with spinal injury doesn't seem to want to take part. A mentor can be a very helpful lifeline.

Backup also works with other charities, such as Aspire, which gives practical help to those with spinal injury.

I think the day was as much about supporting and thanking the mentors as it was about training.