It was a real joy to return as mentor

In my bid to win a flying scholarship two years ago, from the charity Flying Scholarships for the Disabled, or FSD, I had to undergo a selection process at RAF Cranwell, along with the rest of the shortlisted 24 candidates, writes blogger Emma Suddaby.

This was a virtually identical process to the one that RAF officer candidates go through on their quest to earn a living piloting fast jets: several days of aptitude tests, medical checks and interviews.

This year, I was invited back as a mentor, looking after three of the candidates - my job was to steer them through the whirlwind of scary challenges they would be asked to negotiate during their time on base. To support them, physically and emotionally, and generally to act as though I knew what I was doing!

It was a joy to be invited back to Cranwell and catch up with old friends, but the real pleasure was spending time with a whole bunch of people just like me. Their bodies were broken, but their spirits shining like 600-watt lightbulbs from within. Each one had overcome huge hurdles just to get up/down to Lincolnshire, and I well remember the mental anxieties involved in stepping up to the challenges waiting for them at the end of their physically-difficult journeys.

Challenges that many lucky enough to possess a healthy body might not be up for. And that’s before they even get to the learning-how-to-fly bit.

It’s amazing the myriad ways in which the human body can malfunction. For every, tiny, clever piece of the jigsaw that makes up a body, there’s an opportunity for things to go wrong.

Now - I’m allowed to say this because my whole body is one big, malfunctioning scrap-heap - but there was a strange sort of relief in spending time with so many weird and wonderful variations on the human norm. I wasn’t worried about picking things up strangely, because of my hands, or walking with my bum sticking out, as I often am around able-bodied folk.

Everybody there was sticking their bum out in some direction or another, and picking objects up with their toes, teeth - anything other than their fingers . . . so refreshing!

Despite this, the collective ambition and determination was fair bouncing off the walls, and I couldn’t help thinking - you know, if this lot had been born with the normal, functioning, complete physical kit, they’d have been downright dangerous!

And that’s the beauty of the FSD mission. They ignore the disfunctional/incomplete parts of a disabled person, and work on the inner part of them that just won’t give in - the driving force of bravery, endurance and aspiration they’ve developed to get them through the often intolerable difficulties they face just getting through each day.

FSD reshapes that ball of raw strength inside each scholar, nourishes it, hones it, and focuses it into a tool they can use to achieve the biggest triumph imaginable - becoming a pilot. And FSD know very well, that once they’ve achieved that, they will realise they can achieve anything.

It was so moving to shepherd a new generation of wannabe pilots along the start of their journeys, knowing, as I do the ups, downs and testing times awaiting those who were awarded full scholarships.

Tough times there may be, but if anyone’s qualified to deal with tough times it’s a person with disabilities. The FSD candidates had stories ranging through the full kaleidoscope of catastrophe, their bodies twisted, broken or incomplete.

But never have I met a group of people with such focus, such dreams and such will to survive. And for the lucky few who were awarded full scholarships, never have I had such belief in anyone’s certainty to succeed.

Good luck to them all.

Inspirational Emma Suddaby shares her ” highs, lows - and various murky places inbetween” - with her weekly blog. Emma, a finalist in the 2007 Shropshire Star Woman of the Year competition, was diagnosed with aggressive, destructive rheumatoid arthritis at the age of 22. She has since won a dream flying scholarship with the charity Flying Scholarships for the Disabled and is now training for a National Private Pilot’s Licence.