At work today I had a ‘ticcing fit’ in the toilet. This has happened a number of times before, and even though my support worker stays just outside the door it can take them a while to realise I’m in trouble.

Today help came immediately thanks to the new toilet alarm that was installed recently. I was just able to reach and pull the cord as I lay stuck on the ground and it was a relief to hear the shriek of the alarm going off, and to know that help was only seconds away.

The thing I need to ensure now is that none of my colleagues wrap the dangling pull-cord around the grab rail ‘to tidy it up’. I’ve seen this being done in loads of accessible toilets and I can see why it might be tempting to do it, but it makes the alarm useless if it can’t be reached from floor level. Today showed just how important it is that the cord is always allowed to dangle.