Melissa Parker
melissakparker.bsky.social
Melissa Parker
@melissakparker.bsky.social
Award winning freelance journalist, cover girl, columnist and other C-words.
@CosmopolitanUK @RadioTimes @digitalspy @MetroUK
E: melissakparker4@gmail.com
Are you telling me they didn't think this through? Astounded.
The Assisted Suicide Bill is on the ropes - now it needs to be binned permanently

Chaos is unfolding around Kim Leadbeater's assisted suicide bill - and for chronically ill and disabled people, the derailing of it cannot come soon enough
www.thecanary.co/uk/news/2025...
The Assisted Suicide Bill is on the ropes - now it needs to be binned permanently
The Assisted Suicide Bill is on the ropes - now it needs to be binned permanently from Canary on 26 March 2025
www.thecanary.co
March 26, 2025 at 8:31 AM
I couldn't have been more excited to get an email response from Micah Fowler, the first actor with CP I saw on TV.

disabilityrepresentationdiary.substack.com/p/entry-2-pa...
March 25, 2025 at 5:08 PM
I got back into my slightly broken wheelchair like, "Maybe it fixed itself in the intervening time." I'm sorry, but I just needed to grip onto the delusion.
March 25, 2025 at 4:20 PM
I just interviewed Emmerdale's James Moore for The Disability Representation Diary! We discussed the importance of authentic disabled characters in media and the ongoing fight for proper representation in today's political climate.
March 25, 2025 at 10:07 AM
Each week I will be interviewing a disabled person about their experiences of disability representation—and why they matter. Please share and subscribe! 💛🖤🤍
March 10, 2025 at 3:31 PM
Calling all disabled film/TV fans! 🎬 Who’s your ALL-TIME favourite #disabled character in TV/film history? I’m working on a project & want to hear your thoughts! DM me, or my email is in my bio. #DisabilityRepresentation #FilmAndTV #DisabledCharacters #Accessibility
February 19, 2025 at 12:57 PM
I once had an ad for medical negligence lawyers related VERY specifically to CP. But then, not five minutes later, running so...not bang on.
A lot of us worry about the internet knowing too much.

Tracking our personal lives.

Except… I’m blind, I talk about it a lot including on the news & I keep getting recruitment adverts to become a British Airways pilot.
February 13, 2025 at 12:10 PM
Please consider bringing this information/and the interviews we’re seeing on this to your MP’s attention:

#AssistUsToLive
February 11, 2025 at 1:43 PM
Please consider taking part. #AssistUsToLive
The Public Bill Committee considering Kim Leadbeater’s Bill to legalise medically-assisted suicide in England and Wales has issued a call for written evidence. If, like us, you oppose this Bill, please let the Committee know your reasons. www.parliament.uk/business/new...
Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill: call for evidence
Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill: call for evidence
www.parliament.uk
January 6, 2025 at 3:05 PM
Before I went on Christmas break I wrote about the legend that is Gail Platt. #CoronationStreet

www.cobbled-together.co.uk/post/i-m-par...
I’m Part Cobble, Me: The Legacy of Gail Platt on Coronation Street
Gail Platt has lived on Coronation Street for 50 years as she said, “I practically know every cobble back-to-front.”
www.cobbled-together.co.uk
January 6, 2025 at 12:37 PM
Literally the only way this Christmas gift could've been better is if were a birkin. #Emmerdale
December 26, 2024 at 8:09 PM
Got taunted and called "hot wheels," today by a group of teenage boys. Which on the scale isn't that offensive. But my only abiding thought is, just who is dragging these children up?
December 23, 2024 at 2:14 PM
This is my article of the year. If you'd told baby Melissa she would be writing about #Angel for the #RadioTimes.

Like that's my show!

www.radiotimes.com/tv/fantasy/b...
Sorry Buffy fans, Angel's controversial ending was actually perfect
Twenty years on, Angel's finale still stands up.
www.radiotimes.com
December 21, 2024 at 1:55 PM
I contributed a bit on disability representation in Star Trek for this and loved it. 💙
A bold new project is reclaiming disabled people's history that's previously been erased

The Disability Action Research Kollective has been launched to uplift the hidden disabled identities “struck from the record” of civil rights
www.thecanary.co/long-read/20...
A bold new project is reclaiming disabled people's history that's previously been erased
The Disability Action Research Kollective has been launched to uplift the hidden disabled identities “struck from the record” of civil rights
www.thecanary.co
December 19, 2024 at 5:01 PM
I am consulting on a speech and language project. Specifically about not feeling shame around speech and today I got embarrassed I couldn't say "cappuccino" in a cafè. Like once the shame gets hold it sticks.
December 18, 2024 at 3:44 PM
www.glamourmagazine.co.uk/article/whee...

End of an era as my new wheelchair doesn't have full handles -- utterly sure they will still find a way.

#Disabled #Wheelchair #Consent
Please stop touching my wheelchair without my consent - it makes me feel violated and dehumanised
“Why do non-disabled people feel they have the right to invade personal space and control our bodies simply because we may have a physical difference?”
www.glamourmagazine.co.uk
December 17, 2024 at 5:01 PM
I compared having a new wheelchair, with the old one in the corner, to having an ex boyfriend and comparing constantly, and it's so true. "He wouldn't do it like that."

#Disabled
December 17, 2024 at 11:54 AM
I grew up in a working-class environment where any notion of being #disabled was to be pushed down, throttled out.

I didn't want to be an activist but living in a disabled body IS activism.
I never wanted to be a disability activist.

I spent the first half of my life running away from the fact that I was disabled. I, like most of you, lived with intense shame for being disabled.

I didn't realize that there was another way of looking at myself and the disabled community until later.
December 16, 2024 at 7:49 PM
Surely the only proper way to address my birthday card.
December 13, 2024 at 11:14 AM
I am a huge Gail fan - adore her. Also as a mancunion third of 3 I get the Platts. Would give the other two my kidney but never my phone charger. Our Gail deserves a REST. #Corrie
December 10, 2024 at 6:22 PM
December 9, 2024 at 4:02 PM
I told someone I am close to all the statistics on assisted dying being broadened out elsewhere. Their one word response? "Ew."

It's just so vile and careless.

#AssistUsToLive
December 2, 2024 at 6:15 PM
@catsmithmp.bsky.social

I urge you to vote No. This bill leaves us vulnerable. Disabled lives are worth more than a few hours of debate --- don't help to put a potentially slowly tightening noose around our neck.

#AssistUsToLive
November 29, 2024 at 9:16 AM
As so many MPs remain undecided on #assisteddying please consider contacting your MP:

#AssistUsToLive
November 28, 2024 at 8:54 PM