Proud to be retired - and active!

News Release: 02 June 2010

Alan Cooper was commissioned as a Church Army Evangelist in 1972. After sixteen years of active service spent in social work with the society, he retired having being diagnosed with multiple sclerosis.

In the latest edition of Shareit! magazine he says: "I found the first few weeks of my retirement difficult. It was hard to come to terms with my disability, life in a wheelchair, and learning to cope with a lack of co-ordination. I was also missing my many friends and colleagues in Church Army.

However, I continued (and still continue) with my ministry in our home church of St. Mary and All Saints Bingham after my retirement. Preaching was no longer possible, because of my poor speech and lack of mobility, but I was able to continue to lead intercessions and to help with much of the administration in our parish, where I am still PCC Secretary.

I learned to use a computer and helped to establish the Church Army Website (www.churcharmy.org.uk). I worked with others to start Bingham Access Group, which seeks to improve access for disabled people and parents with prams or buggies in our town, for which I was awarded the MBE in 1999.

At about the same time, I was involved with others in setting up DART, the Disability Awareness Resource Team which, to this day, helps schools and community groups. Our aim is to show that disabled people have the ability to do a lot of things, and that what we can do is more important than what we can't!"

Read the full article at the Shareit! page.