In My Own Words - Alison Lapper

[StrongAutumn]

Just watched this on iPlayer.

I remember Alison and her son Parys from the Child of Our Time series. Alison was born with complex physical disabilities but made her way as a mouth and foot artist.

Tragically, Parys had mental health problems and died from an accidental overdose a few years back - aged 19, God love him.

This documentary shows Alison talking about her life and in particular about being a mother, as she prepares for an exhibition of her work.

I found it profoundly shocking and moving. She really is the most extraordinary woman. Life has been just brutal to her and yet she has somehow kept going. Such resilience.

Has anyone else seen it?

It was just so unbelievably sad 😢😢😢

I watched Child of Our Time all the way through.
Loved that programme.

Alison is so likeable.

Really horrible to hear how her mum was

And the horrible things that man said 'you have to justify have an Alison Lapper' that was pretty shocking

I think one of the worst things was when she said half the time she couldn't get through the front door of Parys' home. That just was so sad to me 😢

Just feel so sad for her and Parys

I really enjoyed it but I found it incredibly sad. How someone has remained so loving and resilient after all that is a testament to this wonderful woman.

It broke my heart watching footage of Parys. He came over as very sad as time went on. Life wasn't easy for him. I wished there had been more people to support them; more family.

Her mother was / is a disgusting human being

Definitely worth watching.

I only knew about it because of this post. Thankyou.

I watched it and had a proper cry for her afterwards. Her life has been peppered with one challenge after another. My heart broke for her when she was listening to what her mother thought of her- it was just cruel. Have have nothing but respect for Alison. She sounds amazing.

I've not watched this yet, but I will. I've been aware of Alison since the publicity about her sculpture. I've always thought she was an inspirational and very strong woman, and a devoted mother. It was so very sad to hear of Parys' struggles and passing.

in retrospect, may be it wasnt that early,
on COOT prof winston said this, although Parys was talking about his school subjects, so i guess he was secondary school age.
it was an unusual diagnosis, at least, i had never heard of it

He wasn't diagnosing him with anything on child of Our Time

He scored highly in neuroticism I think it said, which I believe was done in the personality test in Child of Our Time.

But that's not a 'diagnosis'. We don't know what Parys' diagnosis was do we (apart from maybe depression)

Other things you could score highly or low on were extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, and openness to experience.
They're not diagnoses though

Haven’t watched it yet, but I will. I watched all of COOT and remember her and Parys well, my eldest is a year or so younger than the cohort so it was very interesting to me.
Neuroticism isn’t a diagnosis, anxiety is. Sadly myself and DCs suffer - them more than me.