[back to the information desk] This article is real and unmodified by myself, so it isn't actually that funny. It stands as another piece of memorobilia from the crazy hey-days of our mumbling chum. Thanks once again to the chap called Twisticles, who is twelve feet tall with the heart of an ox. For those of you who don't know what a Bring & Buy Sale is; basically, you "bring" everything in your attic that you don't want - wedding dresses, fantasy books about dragons, and loud shirts - and someone else "buys" them. Thus exacting a "sale". Blue Peter then keeps the money, and buys a bungalow with them. Fair enough. This article is reproduced from the BBC website. I merely cut it to prevent them ever being able to remove their frankly shocking treatment of our Joey. You can currently see their version here. 1980
- The Great Blue Peter Bring & Buy Sale for the Disabled
The idea for the Appeal sprang from a remarkable man, sixty year old Joey Deacon, who suffered from cerebral palsy seriously affecting all four limbs and also his speech. Joey achieved international fame when his life story was retold in the moving documentary "Joey", and as a result of the film and Joey's book, "Tongue Tied", enough funds were raised to build three bungalows in the grounds of St Lawrence's Hospital in Caterham, where Joey and his friends Ernie, Tom and Michael spent most of their lives. They and other handicapped patients had been able to move from their wards and live in proper homes of their own.
So, Joey did a lot of good. Fifteen people got to sit down, and six houses were built - all thanks to people selling a load of shit in their village hall. But where were the electric cars? I wanted to see a fifty strong fleet of spazmoids - um, sufferers - coming over the horizon in Sinclair C5's, as a cloud of post-apocalyptic dust rises around them, and only a repetetive grunting sound can be heard over the scuttling of the cockroaches. |