Hello my name is Carl Eaton…

I was born in 1962 with a condition known as Spina Bifida. Sadly, at the time, the doctors advised my Mam and Dad to leave me in the care of the hospital due to my condition, and suggested they walk away and start another family. My Mam and Dad, both fuelled with the exhilaration of their firstborn child, and armed with the sheer love for one and other, decided this was not an option and they would never agree with the ‘professional advice’ offered.

Thanks to my Mum and Dad’s determination to create the best life for me, I have been lucky enough to have led a very happy and fulfilled life. I’m now married with two beautiful children, and a proud Grandad to my Granddaughter, Harriet Eva, who I fondly refer to as curly. I’ve worked hard all worked all of my adult life, and now I’m making a difference to other people’s lives too. 

I’m currently team leader of a support service for young men. I also manage the most successful and highly decorated disabled football club in the country, the Skem Men-Aces. The Skem Men-Aces is a football team solely for adults with varying degrees of disabilities based in Skelmersdale, who back in 2017 where awarded the Queens Award for Voluntary Services at Buckingham Palace. 

In 2015, I was recipient of the BBC Unsung hero award, and in 2017 I was awarded the Freedom of the Borough of West Lancashire. 

Our club is not only unique to Skelmersdale, but also the North West, which means that we travel all over the country to compete in competitions and now have a very full and proud trophy cabinet. We have now become one of the most famous and recognised football clubs in Skelmersdale, where the local community have really taken this remarkable club to their hearts. For many of our Athletes this club is the only thing they have in their lives and when you see the smiles on their faces it simply is job done.

An awful lot of our athletes come from a very deprived backgrounds, and therefore find life a daily struggle. This unfortunately means that some find it challenging to have the necessities in life. With this in mind we have a hardship fund at the club where if any of our lads are in need of boots, trainers, shin pads etc, they can approach us and we will provide these items. 

Unfortunately, we had to stop playing in March 2020 due to the pandemic, and sadly, so did the opportunity to fundraise for the club. Being someone who accepts life’s challenges and rises to the occasion, I decided to think outside the box and find a new way to raise money for my cause. I came up with the idea of writing a book to help people understand disability, and all of the funds raised would go back into the cause.

I was initially going to write about my daily struggles living with a disability, but later decided on a much different approach. Inspired by Curly, my beautiful granddaughter, I decided it would be more powerful to explore disability through the innocence of a child’s eyes. Children are extraordinary beings whom we can learn so much from, and they do not judge, judgement is only something they develop over time.

My granddaughter loves pushing me in my wheelchair, she calls it ‘Gan Gan’s Pram’… and so  

that is where the name of the book came from! 

It is a story that we can all learn from, and I my hope is that it will make you smile, as well as present a much healthier attitude towards disability. 

I hope you all enjoy my very first book, I certainly enjoyed writing it, and I’m so inspired to write more in the future!

You can order your copy at www.curlyandcarl.com – your support will be invaluable for our organisation. 

“What is the difference between an obstacle and an opportunity? Our attitude toward it. Every opportunity has a difficulty, and every difficulty has an opportunity.”