If I asked you to tell me what October 6th meant in the calendar, what would you say? If nothing’s coming to mind, don’t stress. That’s about to change.
Since 2012, October 6th has been World Cerebral Palsy Day, a day built by Australia and the United States to recognise people like me. People with Cerebral Palsy, otherwise known as CP. The most common lifelong physical disability in the world. No two cases of CP are exactly the same, each person’s body and experience similar yet slightly different. There’s a lot of room for nuance in our community.
For me, CP means I navigate the world in a wheelchair and struggle with standing, balancing and walking among a host of other things. I can’t get myself out of bed independently, get dressed, use the bathroom or handle really any aspects of the most intimate self-care on my own. There’ll be no getting in and out of a car on my own and certainly no driving thanks to a sometimes rather terrifying yet highly amusing lack of spatial awareness. Honestly, everyone on the road is safer this way, trust me.
While my specific type of Cerebral Palsy, known as spastic diplegia, mainly impacts my legs and feet, my hands are affected too. I’m not winning a handwriting competition, can’t handle the chords on a guitar and sadly am unlikely to impress Gordon Ramsey with my knife skills (none) anytime soon. Other people with CP have different challenges including with speech, swallowing, vision, hearing and a bunch of other things. Like I said, there’s lots of room for nuance.
Now, back in 2012, the ripple made by World CP Day was quiet to say the least. I’ll be honest, I’m not entirely sure I even knew about it then. My awareness only growing with faint echoes seen on social media over the years, as has been the case for much of my understanding of advocacy and disabled history. 2026 marks the fourteenth World Cerebral Palsy Day and this year, the community, backed by 187 partner organisations from around the world, is finally ready to take things up a notch. And I’m proudly helping to lead the charge.
What exactly are we charging towards? Formal recognition of World Cerebral Palsy Day and October 6th by this little old group known as the United Nations (UN). Why? Well, because it turns out there’s 50 million people living with Cerebral Palsy in the world right now. Fifty million. When I was first told the number, I thought I must’ve heard wrong. How on earth could there be 50 million people out there who look and live like me? That didn’t make sense. If that was the case, why had I spent so much of my life not finding representation? Not onscreen or in other forms of entertainment. Not in positions of power or particular influence. Feeling lonely and isolated? Only seeing others with CP in medical or therapy-based settings. Never out in the world, just living their lives. Passing me on the street. Where had everyone been all this time? And why hadn’t I known they were there?
When I think about all the versions of myself, that have existed so far across my twenty-seven years on the planet, I’m struck by how much knowing all this would’ve helped them. What it might have meant to have a day that celebrated people like me. Loudly and joyously. What would it have meant to feel seen in that way, by the world?
I’ll never be able to answer those questions on behalf of my younger self as she was then, without the wisdom and lessons of now. The life and career I’ve built in vibrant technicolour, often in spite of the complete lack of expectations of society at large. The one that’s pushing me higher and further than I ever thought I’d be allowed to go and has me ambitiously wondering just how much space I could possibly command and create for others. But I can
do my absolute best to make sure everyone who comes after me with CP feels like they belong.
Official UN recognition might not sound like much. But raising awareness and guaranteeing resources/investments/priorities from world leaders and governments in this forum has the power to transform the lives of millions of people. Not just for people here in Australia, where although it’s still exceptionally difficult to thrive and succeed, as a disabled person, we’ve made a lot of progress.
But also, and perhaps most importantly in countries where the largest numbers of people with Cerebral Palsy live. It’s not a coincidence these are the same countries that have far less access to services, treatment, resources and research, which significantly impacts their quality of life.
We all deserve the same opportunities to build the life that works for us, whatever that looks like. In the last two decades in particular, Australia has proven itself to be a world leader in how we address, handle and support people with CP. That’s why in order for this campaign to the UN to work, we’re asking the Australian Government to step up to the plate. To back this cause and invite other countries to join us at the table. While the world I was born into, might not have been built for me, the world I hope to leave behind when I’m old and grey, certainly is. And it starts now. With, you, me and World CP Day.