Disability and equality advocate Gina Patel, who lives with cerebral palsy and epilepsy, has won the Rising Star for Diversity Award at the highly esteemed Rising Star Awards organised by WeAreTheCity.
Our editor, Emma Purcell, got the opportunity to interview Gina Patel about her experiences living with disabilities, her advocacy work and her pride in winning the Rising Star Award.
Gina Patel is a South Asian female equality advocate from Wednesbury in the West Midlands. She has dedicated more than 14 years of her life to promoting the rights of marginalised communities with a key focus on disability.
Her own experience of growing up and attending a disability-segregated service has shaped her motivation and determination to accomplish thus far, among others.
Her professional career began with an advocacy organisation where she spoke out on behalf of individuals with disabilities on a local, regional, and national level. She also served on the West Midlands Young Combined Authority as an inaugural board member.
At TEDx-Wolverhampton 2021, she gave a talk titled Disability and Ambitions, focusing on disability segregation, her personal experience during the pandemic, and her career path.
She has supported underrepresented groups by appearing in local and national media, for example, GB News, for her campaign #CPEverydayLife, which went viral and achieved 100,000 social media impressions.
She also presented a petition letter on the steps of 10 Downing Street for Changing Places Awareness Day, raising awareness of the facilities available for all disabled people.
During Loneliness Awareness Week, she was featured in the Daily Mirror, drawing attention and impact to her personal experience of loneliness.
She is currently proudly serving as a trustee of a learning disability advocacy organisation as well as co-chair of a disability staff network.
She also hosts the podcast Ordinary People Honest Lives, which promotes awareness of all underrepresented groups and is currently available on Spotify, Amazon Music and Apple Podcasts.
Read on to find out more about Gina Patel in her own words.
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Gina Patel on living with cerebral palsy and epilepsy
Gina started by opening up about what life was like growing up as a disabled child:
“Growing up I went to a segregated disability service, which caters for all children, young people and adults with disabilities within the South Asian community and I didn’t really like it.
“I went because I lacked social skills on the weekends, during the school months and the school holidays. I was forced to take part in activities such as finger-painting, playing with childish jigsaws and toys and watching programmes like Balamory or Tweenies.
“At the time I was 11 years old and every time I was there, I would cry, usually as a cry for help but no one came. I felt trapped because it wasn’t only inappropriate age activities but for times such as leaving the room needing to go to the bathroom or simply walking 50 metres to hand something to a member of staff, I was watched.”
Gina continued: “Beyond the segregated service, I went to a mainstream school and academically I wasn’t great and those years weren’t my best, especially in my secondary years, I would count down the days in my head to Fridays and then to the holidays.
“I also remember the endless number of hospital appointments I had for either physiotherapy or occupational therapy (OT) and those for all the different splints I had to wear and probably something which won’t surprise you, I didn’t really like to wear!
“Overall I remember in particular in my school years feeling not like everyone else and questioning myself as to why I couldn’t fit in. I wanted to be like my peers but I never was.”
Gina went on to explain how her disabilities affect her on a daily basis: “With my cerebral palsy, I can’t use my left hand and whilst I can walk short distances, I sometimes use a wheelchair.
“With my epilepsy, I am currently on medication, which has stabilised my seizures. However, I have been in hospital twice in the past two years from losing my seizure-free run.”
She added: “At home, I receive health and social care for all my personal care needs because I struggle to look after myself. Whereas for the workplace I have a support worker.”
In regards to ablest and racist attitudes, Gina said she’s had mixed experiences with this: “Luckily I’ve not had discriminative comments directly because of my ethnicity however I do get people in the street staring at me because of my disability.
“It really upsets me when people as a whole with any protected characteristics are put in uncomfortable situations, but it shows we have a long way to go to be more accepting and inclusive.”
Gina Patel on working as an equality advocate and mental health first aider
Gina admitted she is not sure what inspired her to become an equality advocate but just that she wanted to try and make positive change: “I don’t know really, I just knew I wanted to make a difference. Probably because of my childhood and almost 14 years ago, I volunteered with a small disability organisation and I think looking back now, those experiences inspired and drove me to where I am today!”
Gina continued to explain more about her variety of administration, advocacy and trustee roles over the years and the kind of things she has been involved in and what she enjoys the most:
“In those 14 years, I have done a lot from the initial disability charity mentioned above, I used to visit services used by people with disabilities like clubs, day services and residential homes and I inspected them from a quality of life perspective against a set of standards wrote by people with disabilities.
“The standards known as ‘Quality of Life Standards’ set out our expectations from services and how we want to be treated to live an ordinary life. I have conducted person-centred training for strategic professionals such as social workers and chaired meetings with council workers.
“Then my volunteering included a role with the West Midlands Young Combined Authority where I advised the Combined Authority on various policies affecting young people and we set out a priorities document setting out our aims and expectations for young people.
“I have also served on the Cultural Leadership Board, the TEDx talk, my endless communications work sharing my lived experience as a disabled South Asian woman and now my trustee position and co-chair position at my employer advocating for disabled people.
“I would say overall, I enjoy all the work I do but I enjoy the communications work along with the podcast the most!”
For other people looking to become equality advocates, Gina gave this advice: “You are one person who can make a big difference if something needs to change. Don’t let anyone stop you because I believe in you and most importantly believe in yourself!”
As well as her advocacy work, Gina is also a mental health first aider. Gina told us more about how and why she became one and what the role involves:
“A mental health first aider is a person trained to support someone who might be struggling with their mental health to get help. We aren’t medical professionals but I would say we are like the first responders if someone needs help.
“I became one because I have struggled with my mental health and I want to be someone to support others because mental health is just as important as physical health.
“To become one, I took a virtual course certified with Mental Health First Aid England.”
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Gina Patel’s equality campaigning and podcasting
Gina has also been doing lots of equality campaigning and raising disability awareness in the public eye. She told us a bit more about her #CPEverydayLife campaign and how it has supported people with cerebral palsy:
“The campaign was about my lived experience with CP as over the years I have started to become more frustrated when I can’t do an activity and whilst we talk so much about how our lives are impacted, we never get to live it. My campaign was something, an opportunity for non-disabled people to feel a glimpse of what life is like for me and other people with the condition.
“The campaign itself asked people to undertake everyday tasks, such as preparing a meal/snack, going shopping, travelling on public transport and applying make-up, using only one hand. The activity would be recorded and posted on social media with the hashtag #CPEverydayLife.”
She also presented a petition letter on the steps of 10 Downing Street for Changing Places Awareness Day, raising awareness of the benefits and importance of having more Changing Places toilets.
Gina shared how Changing Places toilets are important to her and what it was like handing the petition to 10 Downing Street:
“To me, a Changing Places toilet is important because I’m not your average disabled person who would assume needs one. To be honest I didn’t want to accept it because I have struggled with incontinence for a long time but the way I got around it was limiting my drinks and going less frequently to the toilet.
“Nowadays I don’t do as much because I have had help with the NHS, which makes using a Changing Places toilet easier and more comfortable to use.
“Going to 10 Downing Street felt nerve-wracking and something that just sort of happened. Standing on the famous steps and seeing the building in person is a lot different to what you see on TV. It feels odd every time I see the building appear on the news and doesn’t feel the same.”
In 2021, Gina did a TEDx Talk on her experiences growing up with a disability, living through Covid and her career as an advocate. She highlighted what it was like doing it and what responses she got from it:
“The TEDx talk was…well I’m not sure how to describe it! It was an opportunity that came about accidentally if I’m honest, I didn’t realise just how much of a big deal they were until one day, I spoke to one of my support workers about it and then it kind of happened.
“The talk Disability and Ambitions focused on my lived experience as a disabled person from the Covid era, starting medical treatment and my time at the disability segregated service, the need for inclusion and my own career journey.
“In terms of the response I had a lot of positive comments and even though it is coming up to three years since the day happened, I can’t believe it happened.”
Gina went on to tell us about her podcast and what kind of topics she discusses:
“My podcast is entitled Ordinary People Honest Lives and is essentially a platform for people not in the public domain to have a voice and platform to share their story because people not in the public eye are not given any opportunities to be seen in society.
“The podcast has covered people’s lived experiences within the LGBTQIA+, Black, Asian, Minority ethnic (BAME), south Asian as well as the disability communities.
“To date, topics such as loneliness, the autism community, Pride, International Day of Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia and the difficult subject of dying has been discussed – I am always on the hunt for guests!”
Gina Patel on winning the Rising Star for Diversity Award
A couple of months ago Gina won the Rising Star for Diversity award at the highly esteemed Rising Star Awards organised by WeAreTheCity.
The awards, which are in their tenth year and serve as a “premier platform” showcasing the UK’s female talent pipeline below management level, opened for nominations on the 16th January 2024, and received 1300 responses.
On the 21st May 2024, she attended a shortlist celebration event at the Royal Bank of Canada where she found herself being the only person with a disability present.
Gina explained how she found out that she had won the Rising Star for Diversity Award and what her immediate reaction was:
“I had received an email from WeAreTheCity. At the time I was on a break from work, I forgot I was on a Teams call with my support worker and not on mute, when I opened the email, I screamed quite loudly for at least five minutes (luckily though at the time, my support worker was away from the screen so it didn’t go right through their ear!)”
Gina continued to say how it felt being the only disabled winner of this award:
“Personally whilst I am happy and delighted to have won, being the disabled winner conveys just how much more work needs to be done because representation is key.”
She added: “Winning the Rising Star for Diversity award is an amazing achievement and something I can’t quite believe!
“There are 16 million disabled people in the UK but I also represent a small minority of 5.15 million needing support with the aid of health and social care and we don’t get seen or heard because we aren’t a priority.
“Sadly, that was also reflected at the shortlisting event on the 21st May, we talked so much about inclusion and yet when I was the only one there from my community, I felt like I was the odd one out.
“Winning this award isn’t just for me, it’s for those 5.15 million people because they matter just as much. That’s why awards like this are so important.”
All winners of the Rising Star Awards will head to The Londoner Hotel on the 17th July to celebrate their achievements. Asked if Gina would be attending, she said: “Yes, I am aiming to go because these things don’t happen every day.”
Gina’s final point on whether she thinks her advocacy work will be noticed more following this award win and will go on to improve more lives for disabled people, she said:
“The work I do is because I want to give back to everyone. Recognition is nice but that doesn’t have to happen through awards.
“I have dreams and ambitions so I hope my work continues to be successful and I hope it improves lives for everyone as a whole.”
You can find out more about Gina Patel by visiting her website and following her on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn.