My friend Michele Coele, who has died aged 68 from multiple sclerosis, was a campaigner for disability rights, and co-founded the Disabled Parents Network (DPN), which in 2004 became a registered charity. Lifelong gifts for friendship and for building bonds of solidarity underpinned her work.
Michele’s book Disabled Parents: Dispelling the Myths (1997) emphasised “society’s inability to recognise the role of disabled people as carers when they are so tightly pigeonholed as dependants”. She also co-edited a collection of pieces by disabled parents, Bigger Than the Sky (1999), with Rowen Jade, that have become resources for social work and government policy.
