Jimmy McIntosh

Jimmy McIntosh MBE

Was pleased to accept an invite to attend the Partners in Advocacy AGM this week. You can find out more about them at their website. Part of the meeting was used to deliver a tribute to longstanding PiA chair Jimmy McIntosh MBE. This was delivered in true "This is Your Life" style by Duncan Macauley. Jimmy's story is quite remarkable. He's well known in Edinburgh for his tireless campaigning for people with disabilities and was a prominent figure in the successful fight against the Care and Support tender exercise under the last Council. Born in 1939 with cerebral palsy, doctors at the time said he wouldn't live into his teens. He's now in his mid seventies and as active as ever. His story also tells us much about our own society in that Jimmy spent 40 years of his life in different institutions including the old Gogarburn hospital. He and his fellow inmates, as they were called, were kept in locked wards and denied the most basic of rights. They even had to go to court to win the right to vote. Thankfully we've moved on a bit since then, but I'm sure we still have further to travel. You can see a short film about Jimmy on this link.