Cerrie Burnell

I have been following the discusson about the cBeebies presenter Cerrie Burnell who is missing a hand - I gather from birth rather than throungh amputation - and am appalled about the attitude of some parents - apparently 9 have complained that she scares the toddlers

Anyway I feel strongly about this: you see I AM disabled - with an above-knee amputation of my right leg. Now I would be the first to say that a missing leg is much less obvious than an amputated arm but there have been numerous occaisions when I do not wear my prosthesis - for example going swimming.

To be honest I would much much prefer kids looking at me, saying (as kids do when stating the bleeding obvious!) “you have one leg!” or “Mister - what happened to your leg?” (to which the answer “got eaten by a tiger” normally get “really? wow!!”) to parents hissing at the kids - “its rude to stare” or some such rubbish as if the parents will squash the kids curiosity.

I would much prefer children to get used to the fact that disablity exists rather than having it hidden away under a bush.

My own kids - having grown up with me - are not fazed at all about any form of disability.