Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson on disability, resilience, and the importance of charities like Contact

2 mins read

Monday 20 January 2025

Tags: Contact events

In December, we held a special event at the Royal Society in London where broadcaster, Jane Garvey spoke with national treasure, Paralympian and cross-bench Peer, Tanni, Baroness Grey-Thompson. 

Tanni told the audience about the challenges her family faced growing up in the 1970s. Although some things have changed for families caring for a disabled child, there is still a long way to go. She also spoke about the unique role that Contact plays in helping parent carers navigate the complicated systems of support and the resilience they need to face daily battles to get the education, health and social care support that their families are entitled to.

“There are still a lot of challenges out there and the fact that we still need organisations like Contact means that things are still not where they need to be.”

You can watch some short snippets of Jane and Tanni’s conversation on our Youtube channel. Watch Tanni talk about parent carer resilience, the battles families face and the individual versus the impairment.

The atmosphere on the night was really upbeat and offered guests a very entertaining and thought-provoking evening. The audience also heard from parent carers Vanessa, Contact’s new chair of trustees, and Orleen who has been supported by Contact for many years.

This was the third ‘in conversation’ event that we have held in the last few years. Jane Garvey has kindly agreed to be the interviewer at each one with previous events including conversations with former Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families and Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer, Ed Balls and BBC’s disability news correspondent and presenter, Nikki Fox.

Watch Jane and Tanni’s conversation in full.