Nicky Chapman obituary
Sitting just 2’ 9” in her wheelchair Nicky Chapman was a challenge to anyone on first meeting. It’s not the usual way to start an obituary, but she was not a ‘usual’ person.
Nicky’s distinctive body size and shape could not, and as she always said, should not, be ignored. From her small frame she held you with a steady gaze, a ready wit and a disarming laugh.
Nicky described that in those ‘first golden five minutes’ of meeting someone new, she could say anything. Set the agenda; get her message across; be the outspoken champion of difference that quite literally she embodied. Secretly, I believe she was a giant with the special power to make people grow and be the best of themselves. She made us stretch towards a higher understanding of what it means to be different. In a profound way she shook people’s perception of normality and what it means to be human.
Whilst in the process of nominating her for a ‘People’s Peerage’ I was told that Lord Douglas Hurd, on the panel who interviewed Nicky, ‘needed a stiff gin and tonic’ afterwards. Hardly surprising, Nicky injected the spirit of a G&T in everyone she met. Even so, it was an important and bold step for the House of Lords to appoint Nicky as the first peer with a recognisable congenital disability. And a milestone for disability equality.
I first met Nicky 20 years ago when she came to live on Habinteg’s new housing scheme in Roundhay, Leeds. Built to Habinteg’s inclusive design standard, each home was built to mobility (now Lifetime Homes) standard or the full wheelchair standard. Nicky thrived in the new accessible environment, wheeling around to engage, charm and befriend her neighbours; later she was proud to be known as ‘the cat lady’ by local kids who’d grown up around her not noticing her disability so much as her three cats. Most often mentioned of the three was Crip, her disabled cat, whose politically incorrect name reflects another of Nicky’s congenital conditions: a wicked sense of humour!
Soon after becoming a tenant, Nicky joined Habinteg Housing Association’s Regional Committee, where she promoted unceasingly the tenants’ voice and specifically the need for inclusive services alongside inclusive design. A staunch supporter of Habinteg’s Community Assistant Service as well as Lifetime Homes, Nicky later carried her campaign to the House of Lords.
For the last three years Nicky had been Habinteg’s Chair and though failing health began to slow her activism, it couldn’t stifle her passion for an inclusive world. Habinteg and the wider world has lost a great champion of difference, a figurehead and a fighter. Many of us at Habinteg have also lost a good friend, someone unique and very special to know.
Nicky lived her life fighting for the right to be respected and included. The message posted in the front window of her home sums her up and leaves something for us all to think about:
‘Normal people worry me.’
Mike Donnelly, chief executive, Habinteg Housing Association
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