Hi everyone, Happy World Down Syndrome Day 2024! We are sorry to have to let you know that Strasbourg refused to hear our case. Thank you so much for all your support that got us this far. However, in MUCH better news, you may have seen in the news yesterday that Liam Fox MP is tabling an amendment to the Criminal Justice Bill that would do what our case tried to do. Bring Equality into the laws around abortion and end #DownrightDiscrimination. It is likely to be a free vote so please write to your MP, tell them how you feel and ask them to vote for it! 

Let’s do this!

Heidi, James, Maire and Aidan

Hi Everyone!  

Here’s an update on our court case.  The Supreme Court have said they didn’t want to hear the case. But we don't want to give up. 

So we are going to the European Court in Strasbourg to get equality for babies with disabilities in the womb!  At the moment a baby with DS can be aborted RIGHT UP TO BIRTH. We think that’s #downrightdiscrimination, and know that you do too.  

This will of course involve more legal costs. But if you believe that we shouldn't give up, and should try everything to get people to realise the discrimination going on in front of their eyes, then please support our case so that we can take the fight all the way to Strasbourg. 

If we win there the case will effect the law across the whole of Europe. Thankyou for your generosity. 

Please give to our crowd funder if you can.  LET’S DO THIS! 

Heidi, James, Aidan and Maire. 

Happy New Year! Hope you all had a great Christmas! We have decided to ask the Supreme Court for permission to appeal. Our lovely lawyers submitted the paperwork over Christmas. We think the government might not want us to appeal, but we are going to try! 

So we are going to need £175,000. The good news is that we already have nearly £150,000 of that, but we're still a bit short. We know January is not always a great time to ask for money.........(so we might mention it again in February).....but we wanted to share our exciting news anyway!

Let's do this!

Heidi, James, Máire and Aidan

Hi everyone, well that didn't quite go according to plan. We were so upset when we found out that the judges still can't see how having one law for people without disabilities and one law for those with disabilities isn't against our Human Rights. 

We are just deciding what to do next, and will be back in touch soon. 

In the meantime thank you so much for all your financial, prayer and other support, and also to those of you who came to London on Friday, it means so much! 

Heidi, James, Aidan and Máire

Thank you so much for all your support, we wouldn't be here without you. 

Let's do this! 

Heidi, James, Aidan and Máire

So yesterday we went to the Court of Appeal. So many people came to support and the court room was full! 

The judge said that they really understood the human element of the case - hurrah! Thank you so much everyone for coming.  

Heidi gave a speech outside the court (she was too busy with ITV, and so missed her opportunity to speak in court, the life of an activist!)

And so now we wait........................we expect the judgement to be in October time, Please keep talking about the case, telling everyone you know. It is surprising how many people don't realise that there is this level of discrimination in our law. 

Thank you again, off to chill in Hyde Park. 

We are on our way to London, all ready for the hearing tomorrow. Thank you so much for all of your support - we really appreciate it!

We are still a little short of our target, so if you haven't shared the link yet, told all your friends and work colleagues and everyone in your circle does not yet know about the discrimination in our law, please tell them!

Let's do this!

love from Heidi, James, Aidan and Máire

https://www.crowdjustice.com/case/downrightdiscrimination/

 Hi Everyone!

We now have three more days until we go to the Court of Appeal to hopeffully see the end of #DownrightDiscrimination. So exciting! Thank you to everyone who is on this journey with us. Please can you share the link to the CrowdJustice fund every day for the next three days, as we need more pennies (approx £20,000 more of them).

https://www.crowdjustice.com/case/downrightdiscrimination/

Thank you for being part of our team!

Hope to see many of you at the Royal Courts of Justice on July 13th

Let's do this!

Heidi, James, Aidan and Máire

Great news! We are going back to the Court of Appeal, on July 13th 2022, please come and join us! And please donate to the case!

Today is 811 days since the case started - WOW! 

In that time, Heidi and James have got married, and also had the best wedding reception ever. 

Aidan has started signing, learnt to run, (so others have to chase after him!) and is getting ready to start pre-school in September.

And YOU have given over £130,000 to pay the legal team's fees. Thank you all so very much for your financial support, prayers and words of encouragement we couldn't do this without you. 

Now that we have the Court of Appeal date, we need to raise an additional £30,000 for all the preparation that goes into a Court of Appeal hearing. Every £10 really does help, please donate if you can.

This really is a ground breaking case, that will end the stigma created by a law that clearly discriminates against people with Down syndrome and other disabilities. Please please support us for this final stretch. 

'Let's Do This!'

from Heidi, James, Aidan and Máire

Hi everyone

We have now heard from the solicitor that the judges at the High Court think they are absolutely right, and nothing else that we say can change their minds. This is not a surprise. And we are not giving up! We are now asking the Court of Appeal for permission to appeal. And will let you know what they say.

 We are very pleased that lots of people are still supporting us and lots of people now know about the awful law .

 Also people now know that people with DS can live amazing lives.

So on we go to the Court of Appeal – let’s do this!!

 Heidi

Ok, so today didn’t quite go as planned. We thought the court, like all of you (and the UN) would see the contradiction in the law, and the need to do something about it. They didn’t, which is odd. However, that’s why we have the Court of Appeal. And the legal team strongly believe we have great grounds for Appeal. Hurrah!

We do however, need more money if we are going to take it there. Costs for getting permission to Appeal have been calculated at another £26k total. Please help us raise it, so we can tell the legal team we can take this further, so we get the verdict that acknowledges the equal value and equal rights of disabled people.

Heidi is ok but a bit gutted please keep supporting her.

Let’s do this!

Heidi’s team x

Things are getting exciting, Heidi and Maire are busy busy, leaving us to update you. So we will be outside the court officially from 9:30am, tomorrow Thursday 23rd September, waiting for the verdict at 10:30am. Please come and say hi! If you can't join us in person, we will be live-tweeting from @HeidiCrowter95, she has kindly let us take over, and live-streaming from Don't Screen Us Out on Facebook. 

Here's hoping for the end of #Downright Discrimination forever!

As Heidi says 'Let's do this!'

Hi! We have been a bit quiet while we were waiting. But we now have the date for the judgment being handed down. 

Calling the DS Community to come and support me, Aidan and Maire as we hear the result of the Court case .  Meet outside The Royal Courts of Justice from 9am on Thursday 23rd September.  Make lots of noise, hold banners and support us as we hear the result and speak to the media.  Please take pictures of your hands with 23rd September on, and share on all social media and tell everyone you know to listen out for the result.

Can't wait for an end to Downright Discrimination (we hope)!

Let's do this!

Love Heidi

Hi! We have been a bit quiet while we were waiting. But we now have the date for the judgment being handed down. 

Calling the DS Community to come and support me, Aidan and Maire as we hear the result of the Court case .  Meet outside The Royal Courts of Justice from 9am on Thursday 23rd June.  Make lots of noise, hold banners and support us as we hear the result and speak to the media.  Please take pictures of your hands with 23rd September on, and share on all social media and tell everyone you know to listen out for the result.

Can't wait for an end to Downright Discrimination (we hope)!

Let's do this!

Love Heidi 

The case moved to online today, so no pictures. 

Sir James talked about what the State think. They are wrong, obviously.

Now we have to wait for the judgment which could be a while. 

You have all been so amazing, supporting and signing and cheering us on. Thank you!

Please keep talking about the case. Maybe to your MP!

We'll let you all know when the judges are ready to tell us what they think, 

Thank you again, so much

Heidi, Maire, Aidan

We've done this together, so happy to have you all here with us. 

Thank you thank you thank you all SO very much for your support. We have been blown away by all the messages, and love, flooding our phones, social media and in person too. 

In court it is serious stuff. We were delighted to be given permission to tweet. The team will be at it again today from my account @heidicrowter95. 

Trigger warning - Today is the turn of the opposition, so it may be hard reading.

But with all your support we know we can get through. And we have an amazing legal team!

We also have a petition, as so many people have been asking if there are other ways to support. https://citizengo.org/en-gb/lf/203314-end-disability-discrimination

Thank you thank you thank you

Day 2 Let's Do This!!!

lots of love Heidi, Maire, Aidan and team

Hi again!

We wanted to let you have easy read versions of the Court Case! 

Here you go:

Let's Do This!

Love from 

Heidi, Máire and Aidan

We're in London and all ready to go for tomorrow! 

We'd love to see you outside the High Court around 9am before we go inside. 

If you can't get down, you can follow the case on Twitter. 

If court give permission then livetweets from the court from my account @HeidiCrowter95 so follow me! 

If not, @dontscreenusout will be updating regularly throughout the day. 

I've let my team take over my Twitter account for the days of the case, as it's all a bit busy - and I want to sightsee with my gorgeous husband James.

Final thing, there is a more detailed easy read available, ask us! [email protected]

LET'S DO THIS!!!!!!!!!!!

Heidi, Maire and Aidan

We can't believe there are only three days to go til we get to the High Court! Thank you so much for all your support, you are amazing! Keep sharing, we want the world to know #DownrightDiscrimination must end.

We also wanted to introduce you to our amazing legal team. 

Our wonderful solicitor who is doing his best to keep us all sane, Paul Conrathe.

Our lovely Barrister Emma McIlveen who has come out of maternity leave to do this for us (she deserves flowers AND chocolates!)

Our very serious Queens Counsel Jason Coppel - thank you, we are in awe.

We also have news on our judges, TWO judges......(we'll let you know if they are wonderful after they have ruled) Lord Justice Singh and Mrs Justice Lieven.

Let's do this!

Heidi, Maire and Aidan xxx

Hi everyone!!

The court case is getting really close now – I am excited and nervous at the same time!

Thank you so much for your generous giving to the fund, (if you haven't, it's not too late to give to help us meet all our expenses!)  

We are planning to meet outside the High Court (Strand, WC2A 2LL) from 9.30am on Tuesday 6^th July.

Me and James will be speaking and lots of other people with learning disabilities too.  We will be waving our hands with #DownrightDiscrimination written on them, waving banners, giving out stickers and generally showing everyone that our lives are just as amazing as anyone else’s.

It would be great if you could join us! 

Let’s do this!

Heidi, (and Máire and Aidan too!)

Hiya Everyone, hope you are all well and safe. 

Exciting update ……

We  HAVE A COURT CASE DATE ! 

The Court case is on Tuesday 6th July and Wed 7th 2021. We hope this day will make a revolutionary mark on this world and the law! 

I feel so excited to get a court case date because I feel like there is finally a chance to fully achieve down’s syndrome equality in this land and for our voices to be heard.  

Thank you so much for your support so far, we are really really grateful.  We hope you are as excited as we are that we finally have a date.   Would you please consider helping us to cross the finish line to the £100,000. 

 https://www.crowdjustice.com/case/downrightdiscrimination/

HI everyone

Happy New Year  I hope you are keeping well in these annoying times.  I am very happy and excited that this year my court case will be in the high court later this year and I hope with all your support that we will win!  

Thank you to everyone who has given so far - if you are able to give more that would be fantastic.  Please can you share the court case news and this update with all your friends and family.

Lets do this!!

Love from Heidi

Hi everyone, well, fantastic news, thank YOU all so much, we have the money we need to file the case against Downright Discrimination with the High Court. It is currently with the barristers and will be filed in the next few days. Such brilliant news, and we are so very grateful to all of you who have made this possible, we couldn’t have done it without you! 

As we said before, we will still need more money, and we have a little longer to gather that together. How much we need next is dependent on whether the judge decides we can challenge this in court based on the paperwork, or if they need an oral hearing to make that decision. 

We need a minimum of another £12,000, possibly by the end of June. Thanks to a very generous separate donation of £5k we now need you help to raise just a further £5,000 to get us to our current stretch target of £50,000. 

Let’s go for it!

Sorry it’s been a while since we last updated you – there has been something important taking everyone’s attention! 

However, we have now had a response from the Secretary of State, which unfortunately resolves nothing, so we’re gearing up for a fight!

Thank you to everyone who has so generously donated, over £25,000, wow! We are delighted to welcome Máire, mum to Aidan who has Down syndrome and who is now joining me in the fight against Downright Discrimination. Máire says “I have two incredible sons, and value them equally, so I was shocked to discover that the law doesn’t.” You can read more about their journey in their blog - https://meandthelittlefire.com/2020/02/27/dear-matt-hancock-im-with-heidi/

Cheryl has worked really hard since this journey started, but she has now bowing out of the case. We really do appreciate all she has done to get us this far. So many thanks to Cheryl and little Hector. 

You have already given so generously and we have made great progress preparing the summary grounds. We now need to finish this, and file the case, to request permission to sue the State, on the basis that it is acting illegally, and against the spirit of the Equality Act, and cover some other practical costs. 

In order to do this, we need your help. 

We need to raise another £13,000 in less than two weeks, by May 15^th.  

We will of course need more funds after this, if either we go to straight to trial, or to an oral hearing. However, right now, for the next ten days, we need to concentrate on raising the additional £13,000. Let’s go for it!

#ImWithHeidi         

 #ImWithAidan         

#DownrightDiscrimination           

#LivingOutLoud

Hi everyone,

The Secretary of State has asked for another three weeks to consider the response to our request for a change in the law, due to COVID19. Our lawyers have advised that we should agree to this. Therefore we will try and wait patiently until April 3rd! Obviously we have raised our initial target for preparation of the case to begin, and that is happening. And until we receive the response from the Secretary of State we don't quite know how much we will need in total, and by when. It is, however, very likely to be at least £50k if not more, which is why we have the stretch target. So, please keep giving if you can, and as soon as we hear any more we will let you know.

Thank you again for all your support!

We have been completely overwhelmed by your support so far for preparation of the case, £23,781 as I write. It has clearly shown that it is a cause close to many hearts. We are currently awaiting a response from the Health Secretary, Matt Hancock, to our letter asking for a change in the law. The response is expected by March 13th. However, from past experience, we do not expect it to be positive. So please keep giving if you can, and we will update you soon, with the result of that correspondence and next steps. 

Thank you so very much!