A disabled candidate in the forthcoming Council elections has spoken about her struggle with her health and barriers it brings to becoming a politician.
Sarah Anderson, ?? is hoping to be elected in Ward 9 for Johnstone North, Kilbarchan, Howwood and Lochwinnoch and become the first elected candidate for the Greens in Renfrewshire.
The Renfrewshire Greens are headed up by Emma McShane, standing in Ward 6 for Paisley Southeast, with Sarah.
The party, for their first time in Renfrewshire will be contesting all wards.
Last year, Sarah was selected as a candidate by the party but became extremely unwell, developing Sepsis which nearly took her life.
During a medical procedure, she suffered complications and found herself fighting for her life in hospital followed by a slow recovery to regain the ability to walk.
Sarah was already a disabled person before this happened and is aware of everyday difficulties she has to overcome to take part, but now the practical challenges to fighting an election campaign are even more significant.
Fortunately help is at hand – a new pilot project called the Access to Elected Office Fund (Scotland) was established last year with funding from the Scottish Government and is delivered by Inclusion Scotland, a consortium of, organisations of disabled people and disabled individuals.
The Fund’s purpose is to provide advice, support and funding for specific help for disabled candidates in this years elections. The funding will be used to develop measures to address disability related needs to help ‘level the playing field’ for disabled candidates.
Fund received cannot be used to fund campaign materials or similar costs.
For Sarah, this means some specialised equipment and software, some support from a Personal Assistant and a budget for additional transport costs. Sarah hopes to be able to canvass voters in the ward using technology due to being incapable of physically getting to doorsteps – party volunteers will use smartphones to set up video links so that voters can still meet and speak to the candidate.
An estimated one in five of the population experience disability, but figures suggest the number of disabled people in politics is far below that level.
Sarah said: “I’m proud to be standing, to show that with the right adjustments someone in my situation can still do the job as a Councillor.
“My hope is that with my personal experience of dealing with the challenges disabled people face the Council will soon make decisions that better reflect and address the diversity of needs the people of Renfrewshire have.”
Sarah will be competing against the SNPs Graeme Stockton and Emma Rodden, Bill Binks of the Scottish Conservative Party, Labour’s Chris Gilmour and Derek Bibby, William Duff of the Liberal Democrats and Independent Andy Doig.
The Greens have seen a large surge of growth leading up to and after the 2014 referendum on independence and is now the fourth largest party in Scotland ahead of the Liberal Democrats and has its sights firmly set on overtaking the Labour Party.
Emma and Sarah say they are keen to try new ways of bringing members of the community together and talking about local issues.