| 1 | 1 | | Lesley Black's birth 21 years ago plunged her mother into a deep depression. She |
| 2 | | was a Down's syndrome child, referred to as a mongol in those days, and the doctors |
| 3 | | said she would always be dependent and never achieve any of the things her sister, |
| 4 | | Diane, then aged three, would do. |
| 2 | 5 | | Today, Lesley has overturned that prediction : she is one of the three finalists in a |
| 6 | | national award scheme for outstanding achievement by a person with Down's syndrome. |
| 7 | | Lesley holds a full-time job and, according to Diane, who nominated her for the award, |
| 8 | | has so many special qualities that she and others like her have much to teach the rest of |
| 9 | | us. |
| 3 | 10 | | Her victories are helping to further a social revolution in which, instead of being |
| 11 | | hidden away as defective human beings, people with Down 's syndrome are increasingly |
| 12 | | winning recognition as valued members of society. Their abilities vary widely, as with any |
| 13 | | group of people, but as those with lesser degrees of handicap are entering normal schools |
| 14 | | and taking on normal jobs, they are making it easier for others to follow. |
| 4 | 15 | | Diane, who is taking a doctor's degree in biology, lives with Lesley and a younger |
| 16 | | sister, Clare, at their parents' house near Aberdeen. She said last week that although |
| 17 | | Lesley had Down's syndrome, she led a completely normallife. ' If there was ever any |
| 18 | | need for her to be left at home on her own, she could manage. Obviously, she may be a |
| 19 | | little slower at talking and thinking. But I would say she has more common sense than a |
| 20 | | lot of normal people, and there certainly are normal people who are less intelligent than |
| 21 | | she is.' |
| 5 | 22 | | Even so, it is a strange twist of nature that, along with the distinctive physical |
| 23 | | features which c1early betray that a person ha s Down's syndrome, Down's people usually |
| 24 | | have a sweet and open nature that can be a joy to those around them. ' I have had lots of |
| 25 | | contact with them, and the y are all super people,' Diane said. |
| 26 | | -'I have even wondered if there was a way I could change my life to be more |
| 27 | | involved with Down's people. But I decided to stick to science, and be involved that way. |
| 28 | | In my work I am moving towards research on Down's syndrome, but I feel torn : the |
| 29 | | research is into finding a way to prevent it, yet some of the nicest people I know are |
| 30 | | Down's.' |
| 6 | 31 | | Margaret and Jim Black, Lesley' s parents, have had some tough battles in the past |
| 32 | | to prevent her from being swept aside by an educational system that ha s not previously |
| 33 | | been adjusted to accepting Down's children into the main stream. In common with most |
| 34 | | parents of handicapped young people, the y found the worst time was at 16, when school |
| 35 | | finished and the only future on offer was a place at a daycentre for the handicapped. |
| 36 | | Lesley did not want that, nor did her parents. Margaret asked for her to be put on trial in |
| 37 | | a Youth Training Scheme - and the next yea r she became the best but one out of 300 |
| 38 | | entrants as regional trainee of the year. There should be a test after school, Marg aret |
| 39 | | says , to form a truer picture of each Down's child's abilities. |
| 7 | 40 | | The first five to six years were the hardest, she recalls, in coming to terms with what |
| 41 | | seemed then like a disaster. 'I cried for days after they told me she was a mongol. They |
| 42 | | didn't teil me she was going to be wonderfui, and witty, and learn to read and write and |
| 43 | | have her own job. |
| 8 | 44 | | But once you have accepted it, it becomes a lot easier. You can do an awful lot |
| 45 | | worse in life than have a Lesley .' |
