News
James Partridge Breaks the Mould
Well done to ASTI Trustee James Partirdge on the day his week long afternoon news reading comes to an end.
Chief Executive of UK charity, Changing Faces, James has been a trustee of ASTI’s from its humble beginnings. During his visit to the Acid Survivors Foundation in Bangladesh in 2008, James made such an impact on the people he met that his stories are still spoken of amongst the staff, survivors and their families.
In the last week James has been presenting the lunchtime new bulletin on Channel Five in a bid to raise awareness of facial disfigurements. It has been ground breaking having an individual with disfigurement presenting any kind of news on national TV and James has successfully done a very fine job of it. As he mentions in his blog, “…every single one should have opportunity to play such visible, everyday roles in today’s society”. And why not.
According to a YouGov survey for Channel Five, 44% of respondents thought it would be a good idea for people with facial disfigurement to present TV shows, whilst 64% of those surveyed said seeing disfigurement on screen would not cause them to change the channel. In addition, it was reported that one fifth of respondents said they would feel uncomfortable seeing a disfigured presenter.
What feelings has James’s new reporting had on you? If you managed to catch the bulletin we would like to hear from you.
Posted on November 20th 2009 by Test Member in ASTI news
