15th May 2025 ❘

What Spinal Cord Injury Awareness Day means to me

By Mick Laffey

What Spinal Cord Injury Awareness Day means to me…

As someone who has had the misfortune to suffer a spinal injury myself, please understand that it’s not just awareness of the injury itself that matters, its also awareness of how the injury affects you. It’s about the pain, the lack of mobility, the gnawing numbness and loss of feeling – and worse.

To be clear, it’s awareness of how such an injury affects every single thing you have to do – from driving to shopping, from working to simply getting about. It’s about how you need to have an increased awareness of how to do everything – from working out how to access a venue you are going to, to where to park, and how to avoid the inevitable steps, hills and more. Having been caught out more than once, just turning up and expecting everything to be fine is a dangerous strategy.

The awareness I’m talking about is a state of mind. It’s about how you deal with your “different” abilities, and how you cope with the problems this throws up.

And it’s about giving those fortunate enough not to have such issues the insight, and awareness, of those who do. Only then can things change to prevent issues caused by a lack of awareness.

I’ve seen disabled toilets down a flight of steps, and disabled toilets used as storerooms and cupboards. I’ve parked at spaces with an eight inch kerb and no ramp nearby. I’ve tried to get into shops, pubs and restaurants with a step which could easily be replaced with a shallow ramp. I’ve been refused entry to venues as I am a “fire-risk” apparently.

I’ve also experienced (much more) great and inclusive customer service too, however!

That’s what Spinal Cord Injury Awareness Day means to me. It’s not about moaning, whinging or self-pity. It’s about education, and reminding people what they should (already) know.

Mick is a Partner in our Serious Injuries team and is based in our Newcastle office. Mick has written a series of articles on his experience of spinal injury you can read the first part here.

Spinal Cord Injury Awareness Day is an annual event that raises awareness about spinal cord injury (SCI) and sheds light on the challenges faced by over 105,000 people in the United Kingdom. To find out more about it and how you can support it, please click here.