Big smiles, double take, and danced a little jig. Durham County Cricket had a Changing Places which is always something for our family to get bowled over about. The reason is that it widens our world a little bit more.

Not only did they have a Changing Places they also had a sensory space which I was told about by the lovely official who felt we would benefit from the facility as I headed towards the Changing Places with my daughter. I would have had to change her somewhere, today I didn’t have that worry. After our trip to the loo we checked out the sensory room – what a place. It’s been placed directly behind the wicket and has a bubble tube, sensory toys, big beanbags, noise-cancelling earphones, and a tv broadcasting the game. Wow! It was amazing. No one missed the cricket and everyone gets to enjoy it, definitely a big 6 from us.

The sensory room was the brainchild, resulting from hard work by Peter and Kate Shippey, who also had the same facilities installed at Sunderland FC. These two sporting institutions sat down, listened, and acted upon what they were being told about inclusion for all. Well done – it makes a refreshing change and I hope to see more of it in the future. The government recently made grants available to install Changing Places up and down the country – in service stations and major venues. This was also a result of relentless campaigning by the Changing Places campaign. The National Trust has embraced this as has Center Parcs and locally Beamish Museum had a Changing Places installed as a result of the accessibility committee which meets monthly. I was a member and active in getting this installed.

Before these changes, you would have to log in to the changing places site and see if a kind person had a hoist facility in their home on your journey or hire a changing places van at the venue you were going to, or change your profoundly disabled person on the floor of a disabled toilet! Its never been ideal, there are still gaps in this basic human right. Until you deal with this issue daily you never give it a second thought, why would you? Everyone can access a toilet right? Our friends and family hadn’t thought such a basic right was an issue for us but now know because they see us living it. The Changing Places map keeps growing but still has far to go. In the meantime our world of cricket just opened up to us again.