The Big Issue

The Big Issue is a UK-based street paper that supports the homeless, the vulnerably housed asnd those seeking to escape poverty. Vendors normally buy the magazine for £1.25 and sell to the public for £2.50. We are using Zinio digital editions to create additonal revenue opportunities to fund our street-based and pastoral care services for our vendors. We are a social enterprise company and all revenues go to support the vulnerable communities we serve. Our goal is to move our vendors away from dependency and towards full time employment

Welcome to this very special edition of Big Issue.

THE DISPATCH • News, views & miscellany

LETTERS

The Big Issue

A brand once asked me: ‘Do you know anyone who looks more disabled than you’?

It is vital that people with a learning disability vote in the next election. Here’s why

Locked away from life

‘People in the audience think, “I can do that”’

What Sophie wants • Sophie Potter wants to tell people that, even though she has Down’s syndrome, she knows how to party. The 34-year-old is down from Hull, visiting her younger sister Emily in East London. They chat and laugh about their ideal night together

Star treatment

‘With the right people behind you, you can do anything’ – even climb a mountain! • Hollyoaks actor Emily Burnett and her aunt Teresa Pope are a formidable team. Together they’ve raised over £13,000 for Mencap and local charity Sunday Circle by climbing Snowdon, the highest mountain in Wales

Cafe Van Gogh has given us a pathway to freedom

Social care funding is in crisis. But you can’t put a price on having someone who cares • Annabell Downey, 51, is grappling with incurable cancer and a learning disability, but throughout it all there is someone special she can count on

Going to the doctor’s is tough. Here’s how the medical profession could help • Nigel Smith, 52, from Birmingham got help from Mencap when he was diagnosed with cancer during the pandemic. He doesn’t know what he’d have done otherwise

George Webster

ART

‘A world without cinema is a world I don’t want to live in’ • Heidi and James Carter are married and live in Coventry. They have a mutual love of film that they’re keen to share

Joy as an act of resistance • INTERVIEW: MARK BOWEN OF IDLES

Compliments to the chef • Inspired by his love of cooking and his family’s mining traditions, 29-year-old Michael Benyon set up COALPIT Welsh Cake company in 2018, to enable him to earn his own living. He’s also a Special Olympics athlete, competing in Berlin last year! Here he shares some recipes to give readers a taste of what he can do

Puzzles

MY PITCH • Pigeon Park, Birmingham Monday to Friday 2-5pm