A young woman who suffers from multiple sclerosis was left shaken by a confrontation in a supermarket car park over her blue badge. Hannah Campbell, aged 22, said that a person approached her as she went to load up her shopping - and suggested she shouldn’t have parked there.
She told DerbyshireLive that the man said a person had been taking pictures of cars parking in the disabled area and implied that she shouldn’t have been there. Hannah said: “I had just put the trolley back after shopping and made my way back to my car when the man stopped me and told me that someone had been taking pictures of blue badges in cars and then made out he was warning me to be careful and implied I had stolen it and he didn’t want me to get caught.
“I was completely taken by surprise that he should say that and I did my best to ignore him and get into my car as soon as I could. But I felt really shaken and realised how much he had rushed to judgement about my condition.”
Hannah said she has good and bad days, meaning that sometimes she is in terrible pain and needs to walk with a stick, and others where she can move fairly well. She added: “I struggle with a lot of pain, weakness and fatigue and recently I have been having to use crutches to help my walking. I also struggle with my mental health, and this incident has affected me with this as well.”
She first thought something was wrong when she woke with double vision and developed headaches and fatigue. Despite the fact her father has MS - and it is not hereditary - neither Hannah, nor her mum Jackie, suspected she had the disease too.
Hannah, from Oakwood, added: “I had been coming out of a very long and dark tunnel mentally when the old man approached me in the Morrisons car park.
“But I tried not to let it affect me. He was showing his prejudice. Just because you can’t see someone’s disability, it doesn’t mean it’s not there. I don’t want to have to have a blue badge or park in disabled spaces but I need to. Nobody wants to be disabled.
“Though that experience has made me feel anxious about parking and on a couple of occasions I have parked further away to avoid any hassle.” Mum Jackie added: “In many ways, it is an invisible illness at times. But she is doing her best to build herself up to face the future so we could have done without the cruel remarks. We do have a wheelchair if Hannah needs it but I know she is determined not to use it unless she has to.”
