The Erin Brockovich of Swansea
Mum trains as lawyer to fight for her autistic son’s future
WHEN Kate McMurdo’s son was diagnosed with autism, she wanted him to have the support and education he needed.
But she faced a costly court battle to force her local council to send Lewis, nine, to the specialist school she wanted.
Mrs McMurdo refused to give up and embarked on a legal course to help win him a place there – and he is now thriving.
Her determination echoes the 1993 battle by Erin Brockovich, a single mother with no formal legal training, to take on power giants after groundwater was contaminated. A film in 2000 starring Julia Roberts told how she won a record- breaking settlement for residents in Hinkley, California.
Mrs McMurdo, 37, of Swansea, was raising Lewis on her own but his progress stopped at the age of one and he was diagnosed with autism when he was four.
‘I realised I would have to battle every step of the way to get Lewis the help he needed,’ she said. ‘Everywhere I turned, I encountered bureaucracy.’
Councils should implement Education, Health and Care Plans to support special needs children. But cash limits mean many fail to do so, leaving parents facing a legal battle for the help or school they want.
Mrs McMurdo said: ‘People are getting into huge amounts of debt and even selling their houses to fight for an appropriate education for their children.’
She added: ‘I was horrified by the schools I saw, they were completely unsuitable.’
Severely autistic Lewis had started at his local primary school, which has a special infant teaching facility, but this was suitable only until he was seven.
Meanwhile Mrs McMurdo had enrolled on a Graduate Diploma in Law course at Swansea University with the dream of helping special needs children.
She had also met her train driver husband, Alastair McMurdo, 38, online and they have a daughter, Isla, four.
Mrs McMurdo added: ‘ The course was intensive and I often studied through the night when I was up with Lewis.
‘Our local school could only accommodate his needs until the end of Year 2 so while I was studying, I also had to find a new school. But I hated the so-called special schools I looked around.
‘ One even had a seclusion room that was basically a padded cell. I started looking into independent schools and found the perfect setting for
‘One of happiest days of my life’
Lewis an hour’s drive away. But the school was expensive and I knew I had a fight on my hands to secure funding.
‘I decided to put everything I’d learned on my course to good use. I had access to a lot of resources through the university library so I compiled a file using my knowledge of public and case law, human rights and children’s rights.’
She then called an emergency meeting with Swansea Council officials to fight for funding to send Lewis to Gwenllian Education Centre, a special autistic school in Kidwelly.
‘I threw everything at them,’ she said. ‘I asserted my rights and within a week I was told that Lewis had his place. It was one of the happiest days of my life. Lewis is thriving there. The school and its staff are the best thing that has happened to us.
‘They’ve taught him to start saying some words and he calls me “Mama”, which means so much. All Lewis’s needs are met in one place and life is no longer a daily battle.’
After her one-year graduate diploma course, Mrs McMurdo achieved a Legal Practice with Masters degree, graduating in December. She added: ‘I wanted to do what I’d done for Lewis for other people. But I’ve had to accept that I can’t work as a barrister and care for Lewis.
‘I hope to study for a PhD and change the system from within. By changing government policy for special needs education, I can help other families.
‘I want to do it for Lewis, for my family and for society.’