living with a cp sister

Potential-trigger warning

My sister is actually older than me, however she has told me everything that has happened throughout her life involving her disability Cerebral Palsy, which is the most common movement disorder in children.
 
Cerebral Palsy, for those who don't know, is a disability that is caused by abnormal development of damage to part of the brain that control movement, balance, and posture. These problems mostly occur during pregnancy, however it has been known to occur during childbirth and shortly after birth. The disability itself is when a young child (the individual will have this condition forever, the symptoms are just noticed when they're young and growing) has weak muscles and tremors. There may also be problems with sensation, vision, hearing, swallowing and speaking. Often babies with Cerebral Palsy do not sit, roll over, or walk as young as some children. Seizures happen in 1/3 children with Cerebral Palsy. My sister is lucky enough not to get seizures, but it does effect others.
 
Now you're a bit more educated on Cerebral Palsy, I'll get onto my sister's story!
 
My sister was born 04 November. She was born with her umbilical cord around her neck, and like most babies, she was born naturally with the mother on Entonox (more commonly known as Gas And Air). After many hours of painful labour, the mother gave birth to a beautiful child. Straight away she had to have the umbilical cord unwrapped from around her neck and cut.
 
When she was younger, after she was diagnosed with Cerebral Palsy, doctors did a lot to try and ‘cure’ her. This was hard as nothing would work. She had thigh-length casts on both legs with a metal bar separating them to try and ‘straighten her legs’ which, unfortunately, did not work. She also couldn't walk until her early teenage years. She was in and out of the hospital for most of her life. I don't know a lot because at this point I wasn't born, so let's skip to when I was born, shall we?
 
From what I can remember, after graduating University my sister went to on do volunteer work for an organisation called WhizzKidz. She got an award and also got noticed in the local newspaper for all of her work. She also volunteered at a local charity shop. She did a lot of work for that place such as maintaining it while the owner was on holiday, and she did not earn a penny. Soon a job vacancy arrived at this charity shop and my sister sent a form to apply for it. For some unknown reason she never got the job, even though they let her carry on working as a volunteer. She looked for a job for over 4 years, she loves children and wanted to work with disabled children like herself. After many ‘special schools’ refused to employ her because of her disability, she found one working with younger children with disabilities. She has changed so many lives recently, she is some children's hero. She continues to volunteer for WhizzKidz, though she no longer volunteers for the local charity shop, and she does have a second job at another charity shop. She has learned to live with the fact she has Cerebral Palsy and ignores some of the mean things people tell her, for example ‘you don't deserve a job, or a life’ she was once told. Some people are so sick, right? She once fell over in ASDA, our local supermarket. Do you want to know what people did? They took pictures of her, laughed at her and said ‘did you enjoy that trip?’ ‘That was a cool freak show’ and other things like that. People like that make me feel physically sick. But this is my sisters Cerebral Palsy story in my words.

​Katie