There's a new character joining Coronation Street. She's Melissa Johns who is a disability campaigner.
Melissa describes herself as "Not a disabled actor but an actor with a disability," and she has lived all her life with one-and-a-half arms.
“I was born like it,” she told The Journal back in 2012. “They have no idea why. It didn’t come up on the scan. I was born in 1990 so maybe the scans weren’t as good then. I was mum and dad’s first baby and they were expecting a perfectly healthy little girl and I came out with my right hand and arm missing.”
“Because I forget I have a disability it never crosses my mind that I have a problem. I never call myself a disabled actor. I always say ‘actor with a disability’ because that way it doesn’t feel as if you’re at a disadvantage or that something is wrong.”
"I guess I consider myself an incredibly lucky girl. I just don’t have one arm."
And Metro this week report that Melissa attended last year’s Disability Confident Conference at Corrie, which was organised by actress Cherylee Houston, who plays Izzy Armstong.
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1 comment:
What's a disability campaigner?
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