Articles in Blog Posts

The Importance Of Work For People With A Learning Disability

Written by Ann H

Work is an important part of life for everyone. I have been lucky. I have had a varied working life. As an Adult nurse working in a variety of settings, as a Learning Disability Community Nurse and finally involved in teaching the next generation of nurses. As part of that I have been involved in the Approval and Monitoring of University programmes. Work has been such an important part of my life. It gave me the opportunity to make friends and meet people. As I grew professionally, my self-esteem and confidence grew, and it gave me the means financially not to have to worry too much about money.  Although at times life was very stressful, working generally kept my mental health on an even keel. Since I retired, I have returned as a Visiting Lecturer working as appropriate, which for me has been very positive.

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Back in the Saddle – Update 28

I seem to remember in my last post saying something about hopefully finishing my exercise bike challenge (cycling the equivalent of the distance from Lands’ End to John o’Groats) by the 17 month anniversary of when I started.  That would have meant I finished on 24th June 2022.  As you can see, I haven’t quite achieved that.  Once again, life had other plans. 

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Preparing To Transition To University

Written by Cary Hobbs

Disclaimer: this is a personal blog by a BuDS member. The views expressed are personal and don’t necessarily represent those of BuDS or our Trustees.


“Making the change from sixth form or college to university can be quite daunting, especially as it is often the first time you’re moving away from home.

I’ve done first year twice, doing two different courses at two different universities so I’ve got a lot of experience of what did and didn’t work for me when I went to university as an autistic student. Here are my five top tips for things you can do now to start preparing to transition to university.

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Why Flexible Working Is Crucial For Disabled Employees

Written by Janneke Elford, BuDS HR & Projects Manager

Due to the pandemic, a new era of remote working has provided greater chances for disabled workers, many of whom had previously been wrongly excluded from the workforce due to a lack of flexibility from employers.

One group in particular has been diligently advocating for flexible work: disabled and chronically ill people, who are frequently forced out of many jobs due to their employer’s inflexibility. Covid-19, on the other hand, has compelled many employers to try remote working, and they’ve discovered that it works.

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Back in the Saddle – 2014 Anniversary

I was just looking through some old photos when I realised that it is 8 years since Cary and I completed the first Back in the Saddle sponsored bike ride challenge in aid of BuDS.

We took on the challenge to fill in a part of the Coast2Coast (C2C) cycle route from Whitehaven to Tynemouth which we had missed out the year before due to Cary having a cycling accident.  It was always going to be a challenge to go back to the accident site, get on our bikes and cycle the section we missed, but it was also one of the wettest, coldest May days that either of us can remember.  That made the challenge all the harder.

However, we achieved our goal, completed the challenge, and raised funds for BuDS at the same time.

Life has changed quite a bit for both of us since we did that ride.  Disabilities mean that I don’t think either of us could manage it now.  However, that determination to achieve goals is still strong within both of us.

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Back in the Saddle – Update 27

Well, who would believe it, I’ve made it to another checkpoint on my exercise bike virtual challenge! I’ve now reached Dunrobin Castle and with only 116km left to go, the end is in definitely in sight. You never know, but I might actually reach John o’Groats by the 17 month anniversary of when I first started this ridiculously mad-cap challenge 🙂

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Back in the Saddle – Update 26

It’s taken me a while, but I have now reached Loch Ness!  Only 251km left of my mammoth exercise bike challenge, covering the virtual route from Land’s End to John o’Groats.  Even better is that I’m now actually very slightly ahead of schedule to get to the finish before the new end date I set back in January.

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