LB's Bus

It's just past midnight. A year ago today Connor Sparrowhawk, or 'Laughing Boy' as he was dubbed, died in an NHS assessment Centre. He was epileptic and was left alone in the bath. The consequence of this was that he drowned. His death was found, by Independent assessors of the Unit he died in, to have been entirely preventable (the Unit failed in practically every possible area used to assess care and safety of patients. They were looking after people with learning disabilities who had been sectioned, that is to say the most vulnerable who did not have liberty and were not able to care for themselves). Horrifying.

Sara, his mum, works for the Health Experiences Group based at Oxford University and specializes in research on disabilities (I worked in the same Dept. for a time) . She gave this interview about Connor 12 hours before she learnt of his death. She had also been blogging about her amazing and hilarious dude for quite some time before he died and LB had quite a fan club, via twitter, as did Sara. We all keenly awaited each instalment of their 'daft life'.

Since he died Sara has been (somehow) able to document the past year as she and her partner (and children) have had to negotiate a whole pile of shite that comes from taking on a huge Institution legally.

A series of prints of this image - LB's Bus - were made, and also sold as postcards, as just one of many amazing fundraising efforts over the last year to contribute towards funding legal representation at Connor's inquest. LB's bus went all around the world and his other print was used as artwork for a book on disability.

There has been an amazing 107 days of action leading up to this anniversary. People all over the world have spoken about LB, held events in his honour; one person even shaved all her hair off to raise funds and campaign for #justiceforlb and address care of learning disabled dudes and dudesses. Amazingness. And the bus is still rolling on. Sadly without LB.

Thoughts always with Sara, Rich and their children.