Changing Places are important to us because our lives are severely limited without them. Lowri is 18 and profoundly disabled, but loves to get out and about. Sadly unless she can be safely and comfortably changed, we are restricted to trips of a few hours. The penny first dropped for me (no pun intended!) kneeling with her (aged 4) on the floor of a filthy ‘disabled’ toilet on the M6 visiting family. I somehow connected with PAMIS and Martin Jackamann (not easy pre-social media!) and got vocal. I’m passionate that Changing Places should be as normal and ‘expected’ as baby changing or standard disabled toilets in all major public venues: it’s a human rights issue. The growth of the campaign, with great support from Aveso, fills me with hope for the future.

“I cannot use any other type of toilet.  The only CP toilets in Northern Ireland are in public office buildings of universities.  This is a HUGE PROBLEM!”

“This would make going out a lot easier and allow me to stay out for longer without worrying about when I need to use the toilet and just have the chance to enjoy myself”

“Please make this happen. It means that I can do things that most 26-year-olds do.  Also it’s good for the economy as if people are out for longer, they could spend more and they’ll be with other people who too will spend more”

“I am unable to weight-bear at all, so I need a changing table and hoist to be able to use the bathroom safely and with dignity.  Otherwise I have to wait until I go home, which often means I have to cut short my trip out”

The Muscular Dystrophy Trailblazers is a national network of more than 400 young disabled people who work together on a national and local level to highlight and address the issues that are important to them.

They aim to fight the social injustices experienced by young disabled people and support the Changing Places campaign along side Astor-Bannerman and Aveso.

Here’s why Changing Places are so important so just a few of the Trailblazers:

“For a lot of people, including myself, planning a journey and visit to such places as shopping centres, cinemas, tourist attractions, concert venues etc revolves around the availability of a suitable toilet facility. As you can imagine this can be extremely frustrating and time consuming, not to mention highly degrading when trying to plan around a basic bodily function”

“The Changing Places campaign has really taken off in the past year and I’m incredibly proud to be part of it. I was thrilled to see the first Premiership football stadium install a Changing Places toilet and we’re working hard to get the stadiums hosting the 2015 Rugby World Cup to install Changing Places toilets too. Here’s to another successful year and to reaching a new milestone of 700 Changing Places toilets!”

“As the development officer for the Changing Places consortium it is a real pleasure to be working with Aveso as our campaign sponsors. Aveso have supported the campaign from day one of their involvement and work closely with the Changing Places team. Aveso also support families and individuals who need Changing Places provision alongside developers and providers to make sure that the campaign goes from strength to strength.”

“Our daughter has a rare genetic condition which impedes her mobility, causes severe hypermobility and has short stature (to name a few issues). At 3 1/2 she is still in nappies and only now is she just able to walk short distances and she needs input from orthopaedics, walking aids, and physiotherapy to help her. She is also autistic and nonverbal. The lack of changing facilities (baby or accessible) is not going to be a temporary problem for us. In fact, this is something which is going to affect the quality of her entire life.  This issue is about giving real choice and fair access to the world around us. It is about treating each individual with respect and valuing their humanity. Embrace our diversity. Encourage acceptance. Facilitate REAL inclusion. When one member of a family is unable to participate in society, the chances are the whole family will also find difficulty.”

“My story is pretty simple – went from unforgivable ignorance as an uncle, to realising that this was so basic a need that we needed to do something.  The fundraising for a facility is our first target, but the big prize has to be awareness and eventually getting these facilities made compulsory and widespread.  I enjoy riding my bike anyway, so the real challenge really was getting those like Lois and her friends, who haven’t been on one for years to do 60miles with me – that’s what made it.”