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From
The Independent in the UK:
Game of Thrones actor Kit Harington (pictured) has issued an emotional plea for people to educate themselves about disabilities.
Harington's cousin Laurent has Down's Syndrome, and Harington
lamented the fact that people sometimes feel uncomfortable around people
with disabilities.
The actor who plays Jon Snow in the hit HBO
programme said: "My cousin Laurent and I are similar ages and grew up
together sharing many things, the same sense of humour and the same
passion for film and theatre being chief among them. We had a wonderful
loving upbringing in the same family and had a great time growing up,
many times under the same roof and became close friends as well as
cousins. My only major difference with Laurent is that he has Down’s
Syndrome.
"My cousin is one of the 1.4 million people in the UK with a learning
disability. From spending time with Laurent and Mencap and being
witness to the work they have done together, I know there is still a
long way to go before people with a learning disability are treated as
equals in our society. From finding it harder to get into work, being
victims of hate crime, or receiving poorer quality of healthcare,
society has a responsibility to help remove these challenges.
"Many
of the obstacles like these that my cousin faces are due to people
feeling uncomfortable around disability and afraid of saying or doing
the wrong thing and therefore ignoring and turning a blind eye to these
issues. Whilst this is in some ways understandable, it is also
ridiculous.
"Learning Disability Week is the perfect opportunity to challenge
this. We need to give people a far greater awareness and understanding
of what learning disability means. That's exactly what Mencap wants to
achieve with this years learning disability week and why I'm asking as
many people as possible to get involved."
Learning Disability Week ran June 14-21; for more information, visit the Mencap website.
