Telford mum wears nappy for speech to MPs

A campaigning Shropshire mother stunned MPs after dropping her skirt and delivering a speech, wearing a nappy.

The all party parliamentary group on continence care invited Alison Edwards from Muxton, Telford, to speak about caring for her 14-year-old severely autistic, incontinent son. Mrs Edwards stood up in front of politicians including Lord Howe, Government spokesman for health, removed her skirt to reveal a nappy.

"I wanted to make them remember me and what I had to say", said Mrs Edwards, 47.

"My son Jon is the most important thing in the world to me and I act as his full time carer.

"But you would not believe what I now have to go through to secure things like nappies and toilet paper," she said.

"Continence is a real taboo subject which many people don't like to tackle, but there are so many harrowing tales to be told, some which simply can't be printed.

"Us carers have to fight tooth and nail for all we get.

"They were a tad gobsmacked on the terrace pavilion when I dropped my skirt. Lord Howe said 'Good Lord' before speeding off to the Lords to do a drugs speech."

The new parliamentary group met on Monday to discuss the future commisioning of continence care which could face cutbacks under government proposals.

Mrs Edwards added: "This isn't a topic many will engage in, yet it directly affects thousands up and down the country if there is to be little or no future investment in continence services.

"Imagine if you were told you could only use three squares of toilet paper a day.

"I also want to highlight the greater issue of health funding, especially to carers, which is a massive issue for people like me.

"I will do whatever it takes to let people know what I live with and my speech was hard hitting. They had heard it all before but I doubt they'll forget being told by someone wearing a nappy."

According to Government figures, four to six million people experience continence problems in the UK at any given time.