Lorraine Gradwell


Lorraine Susan Gradwell MBE was a disability rights campaigner and sports person, feminist writer and poet in the UK.

Life and family

Gradwell was born Lorraine Susan Mahoney in a terraced street in Middlesbrough, the middle child with two brothers. Her mother, Inga, worked on a market stall. Her father, Tom, was a steelworker. She caught polio virus in the 1956 epidemic aged almost three and spent much of her early childhood in hospitals where she first used leg callipers, plus a little home education as an infant. As an adult she was a wheelchair user. From about 8 to 15 years of age she was living between hospitals and a 'special' boarding school. She gained her A levels at a local mainstream grammar school, and a degree in Fashion Design and Management taught as a sandwich course by Middlesbrough Art College and Hollins College in Manchester. She married Les Gradwell, with whom she settled in Manchester and had two children, John and Jenny. The marriage ended in 1983. She met Tony Baldwinson in 1985. They moved in together a year later and married in 2006. She was appointed MBE in 2008 for services to disabled people. She became semi-retired after a heart attack in 2012.

Sport

In swimming Gradwell represented England in the Commonwealth Paraplegic Games in New Zealand gaining a gold medal there in the Wheelchair Slalom track race; and later achieved an Open Water scuba diving certificate.

Work

Lorraine Gradwell was a founder of the disabled people's organisation, Greater Manchester Coalition of Disabled People and in 1986 was employed as its first development worker, later becoming the head of staff, team leader.
Lorraine Gradwell helped to set up the Equalities Unit in Manchester City Council and she also worked with and the academic , to set up one of the early independent living schemes that used direct payments from a council's social services department in the 1970s and 1980s.
Between 1992 and 1995 Lorraine Gradwell worked for Manchester City Council as the Organiser for the Healthy Manchester 2000 project, later renamed Health For All. Initially this was within the environmental health department, but later reorganised into the social services department.
Between 1995 and 1997 her work for Manchester City Council changed, and she was asked to transform its employment services and she founded the Manchester-based disabled people's organisation , which supports disabled people to live and work independently. The formal launch event was 1 July 1998. As chief executive for almost 15 years, she led its growth to a £1m-plus annual income and 40 staff, 70% of them disabled.
She was a trustee and member of the co-production group at Coalition for Collaborative Care. She was a member of the Unison trade union, and served on the National Disabled Members self-organised group, speaking for it at the Unison national conference.

Public activities