Dr. Frances Ryan is a journalist, broadcaster and author. Named one of the U.K.'s most influential disabled people by the Shaw Trust in 2018, her work has taken her to lecture halls, the Women of the World Festival, BBC Radio 4's Woman's Hour and The World Tonight, Channel 4 News and more. Her weekly Guardian column, Hardworking Britain, has been at the forefront of coverage of austerity this decade.
Ryan was highly commended Specialist Journalist of the Year at the 2019 National Press Awards, as well as shortlisted for the Orwell Prize 2019 for Exposing Britain’s Social Evils. Her first book, Crippled: Austerity and the Demonisation of Disabled People, was published by Verso summer 2019.
Poverty isn’t just about not having enough money - it can mean losing dignity, control, or even feeling not party of society. Being clean is the most basic of human needs but one that, I know from my work, so many people nowadays are struggling to meet. Whilst it’s shameful that anyone is put in this position in a wealthy country like Britain, there’s real hope when organisations like The Hygiene Bank are there to help.