Kerry Lambert

As someone who’d only held a baby once before in her life before giving birth to a profoundly disabled child at 31 and had agreed with her father as a teenager that babies born with defects should be left to die – the universe decided to answer the request Kerry had uttered during her 20s: to be blessed with better patience.

The gods must’ve slapped their knees at their own joke when Kerry was given Shianna. An angel with crooked wings, she was born with Cornelia de Lange Syndrome – highly autistic, non-verbal with a convergent squint, severe digestive system problems and cerebral palsy levels of spasticity. Kerry had to relearn a whole swathe of new attitude to cope. Has this given her the patience she was seeking?