Disabled NHS doctor's Twitter posts highlight 'hellish' reality of navigating London in a wheelchair

On board: Hannah Barham-Brown revealed the difficulties faced by disabled travellers in London
Twitter/Hannah Barham-Brown
Robin de Peyer30 March 2018

When disabled NHS doctor Hannah Barham-Brown set out on a 100-mile journey from London to Birmingham via public transport, she could have predicted how it would unfold.

The 30-year-old was travelling from her home in Earlsfield, south-west London to the Midlands city to give a talk at a conference for doctors with disabilities.

But her journey on Wednesday unfolded in an all-too familiar way, leaving her branding it as like a “sick joke”.

Barham-Brown, who works as a junior doctor at St George's Hospital, Tooting, has the rare Ehlers-Danlos syndrome which affects connective tissues and weakens joints and has been using a wheelchair for the last two and a half years.

She live-tweeted her journey to the conference earlier this week, including being forced to lean out of a train window and shout to station staff to be allowed off when she arrived in Birmingham.

“Didn’t intend on live tweeting this (relatively standard) journey,” she wrote on Wednesday, “but I’m soaking wet, sore, and not even on my train yet”.

Barham-Brown said she was forced to get off the Tube at King’s Cross and wheel herself to Euston, which does not have wheelchair access, before joining a queue of an unmanned mobility access office when she arrived there.

When she eventually arrived in Birmingham, where she had made arrangements to be met by station staff, Barham-Brown found no-one was there to help her.

“Had to lean head out of the door and yell to get off the train. They were just signalling to the driver that he could leave,” she wrote.

Barham-Brown said she decided to post her experience on Twitter after former Paralympian and House of Lords peer Tanni Grey-Thompson appealed to people with disabilities to get in touch with their experiences of using public transport.

“Getting across London was, as ever, a complete nightmare,” she told the Standard. “It happens quite a lot, but this morning there was a bit of a discussion meant to be taking place on Radio 5 Live.

“Tanni Grey Thompson tweeted saying ‘share your travel experiences’, because all of us - every single person - with disability has problems travelling. Not only in London, all over the UK. So it was just an opportunity to share that.”

Barham-Brown said her experiences were less difficult than some other people’s.

“I’m quite confident, I’m able to speak, I’m able to ask questions, I’m able to tweet, I don’t have a carer. So I’m able to do all this stuff, but a person with a more severe disability may not be able to. It actively stops people from leaving their homes. It’s ridiculous with how much we have to struggle with every single day just to go about our lives.”

She added that the irony of having that experience while on her way to speak at a conference about how coping with disabilities while working in the medical profession had not escaped her.

“It was all about empowering us and enabling us to work and looking at how you can get the support you need and all that kind of thing. So the fact that my journey here was so hellish… it’s a bit of sick joke, really. Massive, massive irony.”

The 30-year-old, who lives in Earlsfield, won praise when she shared the experience of her journey online. One typical response said that Barham-Brown’s posts typified “why I’m reluctant to ever get on a train in my wheelchair”.

A spokesman for the Rail Delivery Group, which represents train operators and Network Rail, said: “Train travel has become far more accessible in recent years but there is clearly still more to do. That’s why, as part of our long-term plan to change and improve, we’re making 110 more stations step-free over the next two years and making it easier for people to book assistance, as well as working with groups representing disabled travellers to introduce further improvements in the near future.”

Mark Evers, London Underground’s Chief Customer Officer, said: “We want all of our customers to be able to get around easily, but we know that currently not everyone can and that there’s more to do.

"That’s why we are investing £200m in the largest boost to step-free access in the Tube’s 155-year history. Currently, 73 of our London Underground stations are step-free, and we’re committed to making more than 30 additional Tube stations step-free over the next few years.

"In addition, the full opening of the Elizabeth line in 2019 will also be a huge moment for the accessibility of London's transport network, with every station being step-free.”

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