Alison Lapper

Alison Lapper MBE (born 7 April 1965 She and her late son Parys featured in the BBC docuseries Child of Our Time.

Early life Alison Lapper was born on 7 April 1965 in Burton-on-Trent, Staffordshire. When she was fitted with artificial limbs, she felt that the aim was not to help her, but to make her look less disconcerting to others. She abandoned them, finding life far easier without external aids.

She left Chailey Heritage School, Sussex, at the age of 17, and moved to London. She then attended the Queen Elizabeth's Foundation for Disabled People, in Banstead, Surrey until the age of 19, where she learned to drive. She completed both 'O' and 'A'-levels in art at Sutton College of Learning for Adults, before pre-foundation and foundation courses at Heatherley School of Fine Art.

Lapper then moved to Brighton and studied in the Faculty of Art and Architecture at the University of Brighton, graduating with a first class honours degree in Fine Art in 1994.

Career Lapper uses photography, digital imaging, and painting to, as she says, question physical normality and beauty, using herself as a subject. She is a member of the Association of Mouth and Foot Painting Artists of the World (AMFPA), having joined as a student member and receiving a full membership after her college graduation.

Marc Quinn sculpture

Lapper was the subject of Marc Quinn's sculpture, Alison Lapper Pregnant. A large replica featured in the 2012 Summer Paralympics opening ceremony.

Honours In May 2003, Lapper was awarded an MBE for services to art. In July 2014, she was awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Brighton.

Personal life Lapper had a son, Parys, with whom she was pregnant when posing for the Marc Quinn sculpture. He died suddenly from a suspected accidental drug overdose in August 2019, aged 19. His mother afterwards said that he had been bullied at school over her disability, which led to him being sectioned for mental health problems at the age of 17.

Her grief led her to help create The Drug of Art, a charity which encourages young people to create art with the goal of combatting mental health issues for youth.

Biography In 2006 Alison Lapper wrote My Life in My Hands, an autobiography chronicling her entire life story from her birth up until when Alison Lapper: Pregnant was erected.