Lord Ashley of Stoke obituary
30 April
2012
Jack Ashley of Stoke, one of our vice presidents, has died aged 89. Lord Ashley
was appointed as a vice president in 2007 and had Parkinson's.
Lord Ashley served as a Labour MP for Stoke-on-Trent South until
1992 when he was made a Life Baron and entered the House of
Lords.
He experienced profound deafness as the result of an operation
in 1968, but retained his seat as an MP by learning
lip-reading.
After 24 years of deafness, he regained some hearing following a
cochlear implant. Lord Ashley was a president of the Royal
College of Speech and Language Therapists and later founded
Deafness Research.
Lifelong campaigner
Lord Ashley joined the All Party Parliamentary Group for Parkinson's in 2008, and helped to keep issues relevant to people with Parkinson's on the political agenda.
Lord Ashley was a lifelong campaigner and advocate for disabled
people.
He lobbied on a wide variety of issues ranging from subtitles on
TV programmes to recognition and support of thalidomide
victims.
Most recently, Lord Ashley spoke on the concerns of disabled
people about the current government's welfare changes and cuts to
the health service.
He joined the All Party Parliamentary
Group for Parkinson's in 2008, and helped to keep issues
relevant to people with Parkinson's on the political agenda.
We offer Jack Ashley's family our condolences, and our thanks
for his tireless support of people with Parkinson's as well as so
many other groups throughout his life. He will be sorely
missed.
Memorial website
Lord Ashley's family has set up a memorial website www.lordjackashley.co.uk to
celebrate his life and work.
It shows a number of tributes and links to many of the recent
media items which people may enjoy seeing.
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