A TEAM of disabled adults who run a charity to fight for equal rights are celebrating their best year in nearly two decades.

The 15 trustees who run My Life My Choice from the Jam Factory in Oxford had their highest ever income and highest surplus since it started in 1997.

They also won national acclaim through the Justice for LB campaign, pressing health authorities to learn lessons from the death of Oxford teenager Connor Sparrowhawk.

Trustees Steve Mansell, Tommy Owen-Lovegrove and Paul Scarrott met the Prime Minister at No 10 when they won a Big Society award, and the charity made a film, I am not a Scrounger, to challenge negative rhetoric about benefit recipients.

Co-chairwoman Pam Bebbington said: “It has been a great year.

“It was fantastic to receive a £90,000 fairer society grant from Comic Relief, which has helped us to do bigger and better work.

“We also received a grant from The Funding Network to employ a communications and media worker, increasing our staff members from five to six.

“With this extra support we will speak louder and further than ever before.”

Co-chairwoman Jackie Scarrott added: “We were also delighted that Oxfordshire County Council gave us a contract for quality checkers, letting us provide paid work for people with learning disabilities and improve services.”

In the 2014/15 financial year My Life My Choice’s income was £271,629 – 37 per cent up on the year before. It spent £225,887.

The group also asked people with learning disabilities what they think of their GP services and produced a video report for Healthwatch Oxfordshire.

It helped Oxford Brookes University and NHS England to develop policies to improve quality of life for people with learning disabilities and it ran ten training sessions for 15 jobless people with learning disabilities.

One participant said he learnt how to write a good covering letter and he was confident he could “actually get a job”.

The trustees continue to run Sting Radio station and Stingray Night Club, a night out for people with learning difficulties.

Trustee Paul Scarrott said: “Since we got a good team it’s got a lot better. More people come than ever before and they have a lot of fun.

“We have new DJs and now people are enjoying the music a lot more.”

But celebrations were tinged with sadness. In January My Life My Choice lost one of its champion trustees, Tracey Taylor.

The charity said: “She played a key part in almost all of our projects, as a passionate champion, power up trainer, travel buddy and active member of Banbury self-advocacy group.

Visit mylifemychoice.org.uk