Forging her own path at council and in business

SHE ROSE to the heights of local politics, as deputy leader of Yorkshire’s biggest local authority, and largely credits her ambition to succeed to the determination she developed growing up with a disability.

Former Leeds councillor Lucinda Yeadon is now the community liaison manager at CEG, the developers behind the multi-million pound Kirkstall Forge development in Leeds.

Her political views and ambition, she says, were very much shaped by growing up with spina bifida. She wore a caliper on her left leg until she was 13, and had frequent hospital trips and operations to deal with some lesser-known aspects of the condition, which also affects the bladder and bowels.

“Some people might just see the limp and think that’s it,” she said. “When I was born, people were unsure if I’d go to a special school, but my parents were very keen that I would stay in mainstream school, which I did.”

Today, the condition mainly affects her mobility but, just as she was as a child, she is determined to do “anything that everybody else does”.

Ms Yeadon, 37, said: “When I was a kid I wanted to join the dance class at school, and do tap – with a limp and caliper. I’d do classes with Riding for the Disabled or try archery, just to find my niche. But my ‘thing’ ended up being politics.”

Spending so much time in hospitals gave her a great love of the NHS, and led to her joining the Labour party and spending a decade as a city councillor before taking on her current role.

“Whereas I think it’s important that my condition doesn’t define me, it has shaped me,” she said. “People often say to me, ‘I don’t consider you disabled’, but I’m not ashamed of it. It’s given me resilience and determination that I don’t think I would have had, had I not been born with spina bifida. “My condition does make it harder to live a ‘normal’ life, but it has also developed my character and personality in ways it wouldn’t have otherwise, that enabled me to take a role in politics because I was a little bit tougher and able to relate to people.

“Although disability has influenced the direction of my life, it has still very much been my direction to choose.

“I may not be an athlete or a tap dancer, but I’ve been able to forge my own path.”