Helen McFarlane, AHP Director at NHS Education for Scotland, qualified as a speech and language therapist in 1987 and has worked with people with learning disabilities and their families as part of community learning disability teams in Devon and Glasgow. Currently working for NHS Education for Scotland she is the head of programme for person centred care. Recent secondments took her into the Scottish Government as Associate Chief Health Professions Officer and then as programme director for Our Voice helping to put people who rely on services at the heart of decision making. A passionate campaigner for people’s rights, workers’ rights and protecting our environments. She stood for election to Westminster in 2017 and 2019 in Airdrie and Shotts and narrowly missing winning the seat. Helen still hopes to see the first changing places toilet open in Airdrie which was one of her election campaign pledges! Helen lives in Glasgow but currently caring for her mum in Devon while her dad recovers from an operation. She is learning to use hoists, wheelchairs, and all kinds of aids while learning to navigate the health and care system from the other side!

The Arts End of Somewhere, Dumfries Multi- Sensory Storytellers – The journey with multi-sensory storytelling for the young people who are, “The Arts End of Somewhere”, began in May 2019. They were introduced to multi-sensory storytelling by PAMIS and with the support of Heather Molloy, Theatre Royal in Dumfries, have gone on to design, develop and write multi-sensory stories to enable people with profound and multiple learning disabilities to be involved in storytelling in their communities. They performed in the yurt at Wigtown Book Festival. The group have also written two multi-sensory stories for Ellisland Farm and will be performing them there on 30th January as part of the Dumfries Burns Festival.