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Clifton College Learns to Face Up to Disfigurement

"Don't let the way I look affect the way you see me," was just one of the powerful messages delivered by Dr James Partridge at an inspirational talk about facial disfigurement held by Clifton College on Friday.

Having suffered severe burns to his face and hands in road crash in 1970 whilst a pupil at Clifton College, James returned to the school last week to speak about his experiences and discuss social attitudes towards facial disfigurement. He said: "When you have a disfigurement, you have to manage the reaction of other people, and you have to do it every single day."

Followed by a lively question and answer session, the presentation tackled a number of pertinent issues which ranged from James' personal perspective of coming to terms with disfigurement and the social reaction, to current topics such as cosmetic plastic surgery and the recent case of the world's first face transplant in France.

As the founder of Changing Faces, a charity which supports people with disfigurements, James' hopes to help remove the stigma and increase understanding. He said: ""Changing Faces is about enabling everyone to face disfigurement with confidence whether or not they have a disfiguring condition.""

Speaking to students in the Upper Sixth, the talk was held in the Redgrave Theatre and followed by an informal discussion at Clifton College's East Cloister. Arranged by Tim Meunier, Senior Deputy Head at Clifton College, the talk was one of a series of lectures held as part of the school's curriculum in PSHE (personal, social and health education) and citizenship.

Speaking about the event, Tim said: "Disfigurement is something that can happen to any of us at anytime. Today's talk touched on how difficult it is to recover from such an incident, physically and psychologically, and it also helped us realise that being aware, treating people with respect and not shying away from disfigurement is the best way to aid recovery. We are very grateful to James for coming back to the school and sharing his experiences with us."

More information about living with disfigurement and the Changing Faces charity is available at www.changingfaces.org.uk.

1 March 2006

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