Life Skills Successes

Arthur Lawson

Arthur Lawson (22 from Glenrothes, Fife) has been a Whizz-Kidz Ambassador for over three years. He is a sporting fanatic and enjoys playing boccia, cricket, wheelchair basketball and swimming, to name a few! His dream is to compete in the 2012 Olympic Games in either the swimming or basketball events (Whizz-Kidz supplied him with a lightweight sports chair in 2008).

He is a former Kidz Board Member and attends both Glasgow and Newcastle Ambassador Clubs on a regular basis.

Throughout 2008 Arthur attended three Whizz-Kidz Life Skills training days held at BBC Glasgow; he found taking part extremely beneficial. Some of his favourite areas of training included making new friends, developing new skills and putting them into practice. He found it had a significant impact on his life and helped him become more independent; he also developed better coping skills when dealing with his parents and Life Skills training gave him the confidence to try new things out on his own.

One example of how Arthur has put his new Life Skills into practice is travelling to and from Ambassador Club meetings; before his training Arthur would have depended on his family taking him to meetings. In December 2008 Arthur took a train from Glasgow to Newcastle on his own and back again for the first time. This was a huge step for him and he felt a huge sense of achievement. When asked if he had changed anything else in his life since taking part, he replied

“I am nicer to my parents and not so challenging, I even make my own bed now!”