A DISABLED student who was forced to drop out of college wants to stop others from being “let down” like himself.
Azeem Ahmed has been living with muscular dystrophy since he was three, a life-limiting condition meaning his muscles weaken overtime.
While battling his daily health challenges the 21-year-old, from Rutherglen, has also been trying to access higher education but with little success.
Determined Azeem is now set to challenge the care system by spearheading a new way for young adults, like himself, to access education in Scotland.
This includes his hopes to transform The Prince and Princess of Wales Hospice into a learning hub for students to focus on education.
Azeem Ahmed has been living with muscular dystrophy since he was three. (Image: Sourced)
Azeem, who is already a patient at the hospice, explains: “I wanted to go to college, and I did everything on my end, but it was the care system which let me down.
“The level of care and transport just wasn’t there. It ended up causing so much stress it affected my health, so I had to drop out.
“I ended up having to choose between my health and my education, so I had to choose my health.
“I thought there must be other young adults with the same issues and that’s when I spoke to the team at The Prince and Princess of Wales Hospice.
“I came up with the idea of turning the hospice into a learning hub. The care is already there, we just need to bring the educational aspect into the hospice.”
Azeem is the focus of episode two of The Prince and Princess of Wales Hospice podcast series Dear Green Place.
The podcast is challenging established perceptions of what a hospice does by featuring real-life stories of patients, staff and supporters.
Fiona Wylie, lead nurse for strategy, leadership and development, commented: “We have been supporting young adults at the hospice for many years now through our transition clinic as they move from children’s hospice care into adult hospice care.
“These individuals have a variety of life-limiting health battles, including neurodisability conditions such as cerebral palsy, profound learning disabilities with complex health needs and neurological conditions such as muscular dystrophy and spinal muscular atrophy.
“Azeem came to me about his aspirations for attending college and having the same rights to further education as able-bodied young adults.
"Sadly, it has not been possible to access mainstream education so we are now working to see what we can implement within the hospice to support him and other young adults who require care but who also have further educational aspirations.
“Azeem is an inspiration to other young people.
“We are very excited by the prospect of being able to offer this further support for our cohort of young adults but there is a lot to do and we’re hopeful that by the summer we will be in a better position of having this new model of care and education in place.”
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel