Sue Maynard Campbell, a quiet warrior for disability rights, has died at the age of 55, following a cardiac arrest. Sue, who qualified as a lawyer, was a staunch advocate of the social model of disability and was a key member of the Association of Disabled Professionals. She was a founder of the British Council of Disabled People, now the UK Disabled People's Council and also chair of the Group for Solicitors with Disabilities. Sue was also involved in numerous campaigns to further disabled people’s equality and was awarded an MBE in 2006.
A memorial service will be held in early autumn in London.
A tribute to Sue Maynard Campbell by Commissioner Sir Bert Massie
Every army has to cope with the loss of its most skilled and determined soldiers as death takes them from the battleground. The quest of civil and human rights for disabled people has involved an army of disabled people and their supporters and the victories that have been won owe everything to their efforts. But even in the most valiant battles some stand out. One such person was Sue Maynard Campbell who died recently of cardiac failure.
Disabled since birth and having high support needs throughout her life did not prevent her having a rich and fulfilled life and leaving behind her, at the age of 55, an impressive legacy. Sue was an intelligent child and attended the Florence Treloar School which at the time was viewed as the national grammar school for disabled girls. She became a prefect and proved an inspiration to other girls because she demonstrated that disability need not hold back disabled women. In 1973 she won a place at Nottingham University where she studied law. After graduation she practised law and eventually set up her own practice.
She supported other disabled people in the legal profession. She also became a disability rights campaigner. The Association for Disabled Professionals had been established in the 1970s because virtually all education and employment services at that time assumed that disabled professionals and managers needed no support. As well as changing that perception, the ADP campaigned for all disabled people and Sue eventually became its chair giving it a new sense of direction and purpose. She was also a leading member of 'Empower', an organisation formed to represent the needs of people with severe muscle weakness.
Sue was a strong believer that personal experience of impairment, and the discrimination that often accompanies it, gave disabled people a keen insight into the issues that most non-disabled people did not understand. One example of this was the occasion she was in hospital and the doctors placed a 'do not resuscitate' notice on her bed. It has been assumed by the non-disabled doctors that a woman with Sue’s degree of impairment could not have a life worth living and it was in their own interest to be allowed to die. She survived despite this and helped to found 'Not Dead Yet UK', based on an organisation in the USA, to campaign against the assumption that disabled people did not want to live.
Had Sue survived there is no doubt that she would be forefront of those resisting the legalisation of euthanasia or assisted dying in the UK. Sue believed that many people seek to end their own life because they have come to feel a burden on their families. She argued that it is our duty as a society to provide the support individuals and their families require to avoid such pressures.
In the 1990’s, together with her sister Alice who is also disabled, Sue started a consultancy 'Equal Ability' that was highly successful with high quality clients. But Sue’s ability was not just equal; it was exceptional. Highly intelligent but with a delightful dry sense of humour and strong sense of purpose she made a considerable contribution to creating rights for disabled people and ensuring they could be exercised. Her death is a huge loss to the disability community as well as to her family and friends.
Bert Massie
