We are very sad to report the death of Scope Honorary Life Member Pat Entwistle MBE at the age of 66 on 20 March 2007.

 

Pat was born in 6 October 1940 in Colne near Burnley, the 13th of 14 children, and he was taken into care at the age of two at St Joseph's Home near Eccles. He went to a succession of special schools before he started a two-year gardening course at Queen Elizabeth's Training College for the Disabled in Leatherhead in Surrey. His first job was cutting flowers, weeding and boiling beetroot for Bury market for £2 a week. He then worked at Oldham Batteries as a messenger boy. In 1963 Pat married Joan, who he met at Inskip League of Friends for Disabled People. He recalled, “I thought, ‘Well, this is going to be the first time in my life that I’m having somebody that’s mine’.”

 

Pat was involved with the Spastics Society since 1968 when a welfare officer, Mrs Muncaster, found him a job at the Dunlop Rubber Works in Manchester. In 1974 Pat was invited by Nigel Smith, the regional manager of the Spastics Society, to speak at a conference on disabled people's access to transport. After 13 years of tireless voluntary work for the Transport Users Consultative Committee and Community Health Council, Pat was awarded the MBE in 1986.

 

Pat was involved with Scope both locally and nationally, particularly with early disability awareness work in schools. In 1986, Pat visited 60 junior schools to show the “Challengers and the Land of Droog” video and to talk about his own experience of living with cerebral palsy. It was work he was immensely proud of and he felt that he was making a real difference, so was disappointed when the work stopped because of lack of funds. It is perhaps fitting that one of the last things Pat did with Scope was to take part in the Speaking for Ourselves project, so that his memories will continue to be heard in secondary schools across England and Wales for many years to come.

 

You can read more about Pat Entwistle's life at http://www.speakingforourselves.org.uk/index.php/interviews/pat_entwhistle and in his autobiography ‘What's in a Life?’