My move to Coventry and how my life is now!

My name is Lynne Cooper and I have Downs Syndrome! I work for Grapevine, it is a charity that works with people with learning disabilities. I am a media project worker and I have been working at Grapevine for two years.

Here is my story!

I wanted to start a new life away from Motherwell in Scotland as my mum’s boyfriend would drink heavily and be aggressive. My sister lived here in Coventry so I decided to move here to begin my fresh start.

I lived with my sister for a year but things didn’t go to plan so I moved out of her house and moved in with a friend.

I was only supposed to stay for a couple of weeks but we got on so well that 10 years later we are still living in her house. We have a great friendship and we go out to the pub for meals and karaoke.

I love living in Coventry and I have been to catering college and done an NVQ to be a chef. I have a passion for singing and found out about Grapevine through meeting a friend called John who also liked doing karaoke.
I became a member of Grapevine for 4 years then I heard there was a job going as a media project worker so I had an interview and got the job. I job share with a girl called Zoë and it is a pleasure to work with her. I am chuffed that I have a paid job to go to as I haven’t had a job before. I have met some great people in Coventry who have helped me start a new life.

That’s all for now
Until next time

Positive images campaign

I'm starting this blog with an apology, sorry we haven't updated for a while. We were very busy with learning disability week, then I was on annual leave and now I have my arm in a sling as I have cracked my elbow. There enough excuses let's tell you how learning disability week went:
Paul got his dream of hosting his own radio show on Hillz FM. During June and early July HillzFM had an FM licence to broadcast live alongside their Internet broadcasts, Paul was given a weekly one hour show, so well done DJ HObbow. Lisa and Rosie were invited onto Hillz FM as guests (June 16th) to talk about learning disability week. They took along Denise for support and Adam a young man on work experience came along too.
As we said in an early posting we had expression walls around the city & in Nuneaton. On Tuesday 17th June the team were invited to launch the wall live on the Annie Otham show (BBC Coventry & Warwickshire.) Annie also interviewed 2 parents about their experiences. Mel & Donald gave fantastic interviews, talking about how it felt to find out your much wanted baby has Down Syndrome. They spoke about the highs and lows that their families have experienced since, and they spoke of their dreams for the future.(We are hoping to get a snap of this posted on this site and Grapevine's website).
Later the same day Paul, Alex, Denise & Adam went back to the BBC to do a live interview about the photography competition. " days after that we had some of the young people from the WATS project live on the breakfast show talking about their lives. We were very pleased to get so many radio interviews in one week.
During learning Disability week we were also featured twice in the Coventry telegraph and on the city council's news page. Couple of the stories were about the photography competition but the most exciting story was written by Louise O'Farrell about her life as a young person with Down's Syndrome (see the separate blog to read her story).