Susan Cunliffe-Lister, Countess of Swinton

Susan Lilian Primrose Cunliffe-Lister, Countess of Swinton, Lady Masham of Ilton, (; 14 April 1935 – 12 March 2023) was a British crossbench member of the House of Lords, disability campaigner and Paralympic athlete. She was the founder and life-long president of the Spinal Injuries Association. She was Vice President of the Snowdon Trust, founded by the Earl of Snowdon, which provides grants and scholarships for students with disabilities. Her 53 years' membership of the House of Lords was the longest of any female peer. as the daughter of Major Sir Ronald Sinclair, 8th Baronet. She was educated at Heathfield School and London Polytechnic (the Royal Polytechnic Institution).

In 1959 she married David Cunliffe-Lister, Lord Masham (1937–2006), who became Earl of Swinton in 1972. By this marriage, she became entitled to the honorifics Lady Masham, and, later, Countess of Swinton. She was created a life peer in the House of Lords in 1970 as the Baroness Masham of Ilton, of Masham in the North Riding of the County of York.

She was a prominent Roman Catholic convert and a patron of the Margaret Beaufort Institute of Theology.

She and her husband (who died in 2006) adopted two children, Clare and Jessie.

She died on 12 March 2023 at Friarage Hospital, Northallerton. She was 87.

Disability campaigner Cunliffe-Lister sustained spinal cord injuries in 1958 in a riding accident, becoming paraplegic when she was 22 years old. Her rehabilitation took place at Stoke Mandeville Hospital, where she met Sir Ludwig Guttmann, the founder of the Paralympic movement.

She opened the factory for Nordis Signs, part of the Kier Group, in Northampton, which employs a majority-disabled workforce. She continued to run the Masham Riding Centre in Masham, North Yorkshire until her death. Cunliffe-Lister was a longtime supporter of the charity Disability Action Yorkshire, becoming Patron in 2011.

Baroness Masham was President of the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy from 1975 to 1982. In 2011, she was awarded an Honorary Fellowship by the Royal College of Nursing.

Paralympic career Cunliffe-Lister competed in several Paralympic Games. as well as bronze in the table tennis, women's doubles class B.

Four years later, at the 1964 Tokyo Paralympics, she won gold in the table tennis women's doubles B alongside Gwen Buck, and silver in the women's singles B. In the pool, Masham won three silver medals, in the 25m freestyle prone complete C2, 25m freestyle supine complete C2, and 25m breaststroke complete C2.

At the 1968 Tel Aviv Paralympics, Masham added table tennis silver in the women's doubles B with Buck, and bronze in the women's singles B.