Roger Hadley

Roger is the founder of Norwich Door to Door, a voluntary organisation and charity formed on July 17 1992. We will be 20 years old in July 2012. Today the charity supports 500 severely disabled children, adults and older people with mobility problems who are unable to leave their own homes without specialist care and assistance. We own seven accessible mini buses with lifts that are the wheels to opportunity in our community. Roger was born with cerebral palsy and his parents were told that he had a very limited future, he would be a dependant all his life and by the standards of the early 1950`s it was certainly tough. He was sent away by the local authority to special boarding school at eight and there he learnt how to use his mind to store information that was difficult to write down or read; his parents encouraged him to look beyond his disability and he became the inspiration he remains today. In 1991, realising what was needed in the community for disabled people was a specialist bus service, he started to campaign for autonomy. Disability, sickness and injury meant without tranport you stayed home and he knew he was not alone in wanting more; to go to the pictures, to the park or to see friends was only a dream. There was no independant affordable option. With help from John Mills of a local Norfolk radio station, the Bishop of Norwich and Taverham Lions Club they raised £100, borrowed the Volunteer Bureau bus, advertised for volunteers and never looked back. He`s pure inspiration.