The Enrico Charles Literary Award

The Enrico Charles Literary Award has been brought about as a result of my personal experiences as a mother of an extraordinary child born with the Neuro-muscular condition SMA [Spinal Muscular Atrophy]. The doctors told me he would not live to experience his first birthday. He died age 4 and a half. There are fifty million disabled people in Europe and according to World Health Organization statistics, over six hundred million disabled people around the world. This is now a time when information and perceptions of disability should be changed, and it is essential for all human beings to work together, disabled or otherwise. When my son died, I felt it was my duty to improve awareness of disability around the world. The Enrico Charles Literary Award concept is to improve the missing human factor in mainstream media press coverage about disability, promoting positive understanding and awareness to people living with disability, with success stories as tools of inspiration on their journey to make success of their own lives, as well as improving knowledge of those who are unaware of the issues that disabled people face With the recognition that disability is now being treated as an important topic both in film and television, this award is starting to be acknowledged as a vital and necessary reward for the work and efforts of writers raising awareness around the world. Only newspapers, magazines, television and radio have the power to make the difference.