Discussing Effects of the Petrol Crisis on the Disabled Community with BBC’s Victoria Derbyshi
It’s been a busy week. As we know there are petrol shortages and issues with refuelling in the UK as people across the country panic buy. I wrote a tweet after I myself experienced the knock on effect, with a carer informing me that they may not be able to reach me as they had no fuel.
I was then asked to speak on the issue with Victoria Derbyshire on BBC. Victoria is someone who I admire so much as a public figure and a journalist. This was also my first live interview! No pressure at all right?
You can watch the full interview below.
Later in the day I appeared on Channel 5 news (albeit briefly) and had interviews with several publishers such as The New York Times and CNN.
It's been another day of long queues at petrol stations, but there are signs that the fuel crisis may be easing. Ministers have said the army's on standby to help if needed – but for key workers and the people they look after the crisis has already caused suffering.@tessa5news pic.twitter.com/9JVTLfMKSC — Channel 5 News (@5_News) September 28, 2021
Click here to read my interview with CNN.
‘Without my carers my situation is life threatening. I am on a ventilator, and I require 24 hour care just to survive and go about my day to day life and so if I don’t have a carer with me it’s incredibly serious and I rely on them completely.
It doesn’t surprise me that people have started to panic buy. We saw it at the beginning of the pandemic with supermarkets and I tried then to raise awareness of the impact of panic buying on disabled people. What I’m hoping is that by sharing my experience and the worries of other disabled people that people will think ‘do I really need to fill up or am I just getting a bit worried about being able to do things that I don’t NEED to do and is my action going to have an impact on someone else, someone who is providing life critical care?’
I agree with the call to give priority to essential workers for fuel. It really should be in place by now. The impact of them not being able to get to work means someone is in a very unsafe and life threatening situation.’
Please email emma.vogelmann@gmail.com with any press enquiries.