By Meg Jorsh

Last updated 05:40, Friday, 03 October 2008

SHE may be disabled, but that hasn’t stopped 23-year-old Faye Metcalfe volunteering to support those with learning disabilities.

Faye Metcalfe: Impressed by the intelligence of her students, many of whom suffer from Down’s Syndrome

A graduate of the Cumbria Institute of the Arts, Faye runs weekly sessions teaching arts and crafts at the Carleton Day Centre in Carlisle.

Her work is part of the Cumbria Community Award-nominated Friendship Support Scheme. The project involves more than 75 volunteers from Penrith, Carlisle and Wigton, all of whom have befriended adults with learning disabilities. For the past six weeks, Faye, of London Road, Carlisle, has been helping her students make rag dolls.

She said: “The people who come are quite profoundly disabled, so it can be quite hard. Some have problems using their hands, but they really seem to enjoy it.”

Left unable to walk by a virus at the age of 14, she understands the problems disabled people can face.

Even now, she said, she does get treated differently.

She added: “I’ve been in a wheelchair for eight years now and sometimes you do come across things where you have to bite your tongue.”

Nonetheless, she said, she is impressed by the intelligence of her students, many of whom suffer from Down’s Syndrome.

She hopes to make use of her volunteer work as a stepping stone to a career in teaching. Other Support Scheme members take friends with learning difficulties to football matches, karaoke nights and exercise classes.

Last Friday, a group of 40 volunteers and friends went to see the Kylie Mania show at the Sands Centre, Carlisle.

Helen Bainbridge, 53, from Crackenthorpe, near Appleby, runs a music group at the Eddington Centre, Penrith. She said: “It isn’t actually the music itself, for me – it’s the confidence it builds.

“When I started, we used to have a girl who sat with her head down all the time.

“But little by little, she opened up like a flower.”

Helen started the group 14 years ago, after a car accident left her unable to continue work in her job at Cumbria County Council.

To fill the time, she learned to play the guitar, and ended up teaching a young man with learning difficulties.

She added: “It’s just that they love music. Some have superb rhythm, some haven’t got anything, but it’s wonderful when they feel they can achieve something.”

When she recovered from her injuries, she decided to go back to work part-time so she could keep up the twice-weekly classes.

These days she has around 15 students at each session.

“It’s been a real eye-opener for me. I’ve learned to see behind the disability of these people to the person that’s there,” she said.

For more information or to volunteer for the Friendship Support Scheme, call Susan Gray at the Adult and Cultural Services Directorate of Cumbria County Council on 01697 366 120.