Julie Fernandez - founder of The Disability Foundation
After first appearing in the BBC soap Eldorado it became very apparent to Julie, that having a disability and working in the media was, at the very least, going to be a challenge.
Although some jobs were filtering through, Julie found herself with quite a bit of spare time which she wanted to use more positively. This impelled her to volunteer at a local MS centre which offered counselling and complementary therapies. After two years at the centre, Julie had worked her way through the charity as secretary, fundraiser and finally as manager and thus gained valuable experience and insight into the running of a charity.
It was at the centre that Julie also met her close friend Janet Desmond and together they heard the frustrations faced by many of the members simply trying to access basic information about equipment, alternative treatments, entitled benefits and grants, etc.
It was through these frustrations that Julie and Janet conceived the idea to set up a charity, which would provide a national pan disability ‘one stop’ information access service and offer subsidised complementary therapies not just to people with a disability but to their family and carers as well.
Since the Foundation of TDF the charity has flourished and grown in size and stature allowing Julie time to return to her media career. After appearing in the second series of The Office, Julie’s celebrity profile was enhanced and she found herself being requested by other charities and organisations to help raise awareness of national campaigns supporting the equal rights of people with disabilities. These campaigns were highlighted on television, radio and in the national press. Some of these include The Disability Rights Commission’s ‘Open4all’ year long campaign regarding part 3 of the DDA and Scope’s political launch of it’s ‘Time to get Equal’ campaign.
Julie’s ultimate vision is to open more centres like TDF across the UK and provide this valuable service to as many people as possible.