Ceri Davies: More Mascots Please! founder and disability activist

COMMUNITY CRUSADER CERI

Early Childhood Studies and Sociology graduate, Ceri Davies, is the volunteer founder of More Mascots Please, a community interest company (CIC) and a self-employed disability activist and coach. The 31-year-old lives in Kingswinford, and chose to study at the University of Wolverhampton as due to complex needs and happy family life, she wanted to study somewhere with an easy commute.

“My degree helped with More Mascots Please (MMP) as studying early childhood studies joint with sociology gave me a grasp of both fields, ideal as with MMP we work with disabled, disadvantaged and life-limited children in the early years.

“I was in my second year when I came up with the concept of MMP. I was typing one-fingered on my laptop and an image of a giant green dog mascot came into my mind, and from that point I have supported children and families who need much help and support!

“The biggest hurdle I have had to overcome is that my daily life has constant challenges, with disability issues every day. So I run MMP to distract myself from any negatives or discrimination that I face as a disabled person. These happen to me many times, and I try to always turn those negatives into positives.

“I’ve run MMP since 2009 following a series of sad events. My beloved uncle passed away after a motorbike collision, then my friend, fundraiser and Pride of Britain winner, Liam Fairhurst, tragically passed away from cancer. This gave me the motivation to start fundraising for children’s cancer charities and carry on his work. In 2013 my local council for voluntary services helped me to register MMP as a CIC.

“Since then, we’ve helped over 1,000 disabled, disadvantaged and life-limited children in the West Midlands. We achieve this by facilitating mascot appearances, as well as face painting, balloon modelling, nail art, tattoos and costume make-up.

“We also do numerous fundraisers throughout the year like pub quizzes, raffles, and psychic nights with all profits going into the CIC to provide trips and gifts for the children. Every year we have a large Christmas party free to all families, with party food, entertainment, gifts from Santa and all of our services.

“During the pandemic, I’ve been shielding for over 12 months and MMP has been unable to deliver its usual party services. But we adapted, doing doorstep-only services or video birthday messages from our lookalikes. For Christmas we received funding to record a video message from Santa and do doorstep gift deliveries for our service users. We’re really hoping to celebrate with a big party this year!

The pandemic has also delayed the official ceremony for Ceri to receive an award for meritorious service: she was awarded a British Empire Medal by Her Majesty the Queen in 2020 for services to disabled, disadvantaged and life limited children and families.

“I am extremely proud, and I feel highly honoured to be chosen by the Queen and her staff in her cabinet office. I am also incredibly grateful to the people who nominated me for the award.

“My ambition is to help the children and families who are in the most vulnerable situations. I receive so much positive support from others. Seeing and mixing with other disabled people who have made positive changes for those with disability in the community, improves my outlook despite everything that I have faced.”

As for what the future holds, Ceri, like others, is looking to rebuild services following the Covid-19 pandemic and to return to profile-raising and activism.

“We’ve been heavily affected by the pandemic. I want to ensure as many children within our target group get gifts, trips, and treats, and that my staff are well trained and working professionally with families. In terms of my personal journey, I will be working on my abilities as a public speaker, and getting involved and working alongside other disabled activists to ensure disabled peoples’ rights, wishes and freedoms are upheld. “I’d urge others to join our movement to campaign for disability rights and freedoms within the social care sector so that we can all live the life we choose to lead, regardless of how disabled individuals may be.”