Disabled Student's Officers

Katie Foy

Hi, I’m Kate, pronouns she/her. I’m a first year PhD student at the Faculty of Biology, Medicine and Health, looking into damage caused by radiotherapy & chemotherapy for several types of head and neck cancers.

I chose to become a part-time officer because I’m passionate about campaigning around disability. For the past eight years I’ve been a liberation society head six times, setting up/restarting three Disabled Students’ Societies (including the one at Manchester, check it out!). I’ve also been on liberation and free education committees over twenty times (haven’t counted, I know it’s more though!). Basically, I think I’m experienced enough to do the job well, and won’t let anything stop me achieving what I’m planning to.

In terms of my goals, my number one priority was setting up the Disabled Students’ Society. You can’t have a vibrant, active, effective campaign without a community, and to do that you need a pool of people ready to give their ten minutes a week to help further the cause. I’ve set this up in time for Disability History Month and helped create a wide variety of events. As part of my NUS role (NUS LGBT+ Disabled Place) I’m planning on running workshops around sex work and disability & disabled toilets, which I hope to deliver at Manchester. I’m also keen to run campaigns on ‘Too fit to practice’ around the inaccessibility of the NHS and healthcare careers, and help further the work of NUS DSC on ‘Stop and Scrap Universal Credit’. I’m sure there’s other things I’ll get involved in, including doing things as my role as President in the Disabled Students’ Society, but this is what I’m willing to promise as one of your DSOs. I’m a firm believer in not promising anything I don’t think I can achieve within the year, and would love for you to hold me accountable to these promises as the year progresses. You’re also very welcome to contact me if you’d like to help with anything I’m working on. You can message me on Facebook, Twitter or through my email, and I’ll try and get back to you as soon as I can.

P.S Join the Disabled Students’ Society on Facebook, and if you have a disability, please consider joining our committee!

Facebook: Kate Foy
Twitter: @Neurtistic
Email: Katie.foy@postgrad.manchester.ac.uk