{"id":2215,"date":"2025-11-12T10:13:28","date_gmt":"2025-11-12T10:13:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.manchester.ac.uk\/edi\/?p=2215"},"modified":"2025-11-12T10:13:28","modified_gmt":"2025-11-12T10:13:28","slug":"matthew-sanderson-more-than-one-lifetime-redefining-disability-and-living-fully","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.manchester.ac.uk\/edi\/2025\/11\/12\/matthew-sanderson-more-than-one-lifetime-redefining-disability-and-living-fully\/","title":{"rendered":"Matthew Sanderson: More Than One Lifetime: Redefining Disability and Living Fully"},"content":{"rendered":"

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What is disability?\u00a0 Ask me at any time of day, and I\u2019ll probably give you any one of a range of answers.\u00a0 Though most will be of the theme \u201cit\u2019s a bloody nuisance, but I\u2019m not letting it stop me\u201d.<\/p>\n

A few of you will have met me over the last few years, some will have seen me on Zoom or Teams, or as a name in a list of contacts, but to many I will be just another face in the crowd.\u00a0 Though, of late, that has been a low-down face seen only as a body in a wheelchair.<\/p>\n

My name is Matt, and I have already lived enough for two lifetimes.\u00a0 So, I really don\u2019t care one way or another about what the remainder of this lifetime brings.\u00a0 What do I mean by that?\u00a0 Let me tell you.<\/p>\n

After I graduated from university in the early 1990s, I started a career as a surveyor in the offshore oil and gas industry.\u00a0 For over twenty-five years I worked all over the world, mainly at sea but often ashore.\u00a0 I worked my way up from surveying to project management and then senior management in some large construction and infrastructure projects.\u00a0 I met colleagues from any number of countries and worked on every continent except Antarctica \u2013 and we even got close to there!\u00a0 I could tell stories of parties in Singapore, hijacking in West Africa, or pirates in the South China Sea, but I\u2019ll save those for my memoirs\u2026. However, suffice to say, on a massive range of projects and in a variety of roles I garnered enough rich experiences to keep my mind occupied for years to come.<\/p>\n

\u201cAh, but, what about disability?\u201d you ask.\u00a0 That came about in the daftest of ways.\u00a0 At home for once, and with friends staying over, we had a power-cut early one winter morning.\u00a0 Not wanting anyone to fall on the stairs, I went down to get torch.\u00a0 And what did I do?\u00a0 I fell and broke my neck.\u00a0 Fortunately, not fatal, but definitely life changing.\u00a0 And definitely a limiting injury.\u00a0 The residual nerve damage in my neck and back continues, to this day, to impact upon what I can and cannot do.<\/p>\n

I was very fortunate to have an amazing surgeon.\u00a0 He rebuilt the shattered bones in my neck and gave me artificial disks between several vertebrae.\u00a0 And, oh so slowly, I got my mobility back.\u00a0 To this day, I cannot walk far, climb stairs, or stand for more than a few moments.\u00a0 But I don\u2019t let that stop me.\u00a0 I already have enough amazing memories that my life feels full, so in that spirit I look on life now as being \u201cwell, it\u2019s all good so far, let\u2019s welcome the new day and see what it brings\u201d.\u00a0 And that, to me, will probably explain my earlier answer.<\/p>\n

For me, disability is a physical thing.\u00a0 It is not a state of mind.\u00a0 Nor is it a preventative factor.\u00a0 I may not enjoy the same career or lifestyle that I had before my accident, but I live a full and active life now and will continue to do so for many years.\u00a0 And, when the time comes, and my body finally gives up, I will be content that I have lived many more than one lifetimes and I won\u2019t be afraid to look forward to whatever happens next.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Matthew Sanderson \u2013 Research Associate, Planning, Property, and Environmental Management (PPEM), Faculty of Humanities.<\/p>\n

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+44 (0) 161 306 6000<\/p>\n

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