Law student Chris Whitaker has overcome cerebral palsy, which impairs movement, to reach the top of the class at Darnhall County Primary School, Middlewich High School and Sir John Deane's College.

He returned to his old school to tell former classmates and teachers how he overcame his struggle with the condition. RICHARD AULT hears his inspiring story.

A FORMER Hebden Green pupil has spoken of his struggle with cerebral palsy and the changing needs of his

Chris Whitaker left Hebden Green for a mainstream education at Darnhall Primary School, returned to the special school following an operation, then went to Middlewich High School and Sir John Deane's College.

He overcame his physical and perception difficulties to go to Warwick University, from which he hopes to graduate with a law degree in the summer.

Before leaving for university, he served as chairman of protest group RAMP and fought against the Minosus scheme to create Britain's first underground toxic waste dump at Winsford Rock Salt Mine, even debating the issue on television.

Chris is an example of a successful integration into mainstream education from a special school, and he returned to Hebden Green to tell families, teachers and children about the obstacles he overcame, at the school's Inclusion Day.

He said: 'For a 21-year-old I have been through a lot to get to where I am today.

'As a person with cerebral palsy - a double hemiplegic with perception difficulties - my journey has taken a different route to most.

'My journey starts here, at Hebden Green, as a chubby two-year-old, attending for physiotherapy after a complex childbirth in which I arrived very prematurely and was starved of oxygen.

'I was asked by one of my favourite teachers about how I would feel moving to a mainstream school. Perhaps un-conscious about what I was letting myself in for, I responded positively.

'Those first days at my new school, Darnhall, were very intense in many ways, its world a very different one from that I knew at Hebden. I began to socialise with new classmates and having to answer questions such as 'What's wrong with you?' 'Nothing,' I used to reply, 'I was born like it.'

'One of the reasons why my transition was successful was its careful management. I started afternoons and then a few mornings and, before I knew it, I was doing full days. My initial progress was closely monitored.'

Chris was taken out of Darnhall at 11, after a series of operations at Oswestry Children's Hospital, which were needed to restructure and re-educate his body.

'Those operations, and the three months they took, are a story in themselves as I had to learn to walk again and battle on through pain and intensive physiotherapy,' said Chris. 'This time served as another boost to my confidence. I felt stronger as a result and a lot more appreciative of what I did have.

'Having left Hebden to go to mainstream, I was having to go back again, a second reintegration. My experience in that second period highlighted the values and problems special education had.

'Academically, I was frankly shocked at how easy everything seemed in comparison to what I was used to.'

He added: 'I found myself in a curious education. position, the friends I used to have now very different people, I was the black sheep who had escaped the flock and was not welcome back.

'I grew depressed and rebellious, frustrated at not being stretched and stuck in a place I found depressing.

'However, the time I had also showed me the value that special education has. I am fortunate in that my physical condition is far from demanding, not requiring much specialist care or support.

'For those whose needs differed from my own, however, this was the right place. A special school was the only place where the wide range of specialist services they required could be provided under one roof - physiotherapy, nursing, ICT facilities, a multi-sensory room and so forth.

'There needs to be a recognition of the fact that places like Hebden Green represent the best solution to pupils' needs.'

At 11 Chris moved on to Middlewich High School, where he found the confidence to tell teachers his condition meant he was often slower - but no less bright - than other pupils. He was at first placed in lower sets but went on to prove he could cut it in the top class.

Chris said: 'A large part of what was successful about the inclusion at Middlewich was the friendships I formed with my classmates.

'My friends accepted me for who I was: Chris Whitaker the person, not Chris Whitaker the disabled person.'

Chris went on to Sir John Deane's Sixth Form College in Northwich, which he called 'a fine establishment for which I still have a very large soft spot'.

He added: 'With hard work and dedication, inclusion in the right cases can be successful.'