Helen Clawson

She / her
CEO, Entrepreneur, Designer, Public Speaker, socialist and Justice campaigner
Adaptive Clothing UK

Award category:

Visual Arts, Fashion and Design

Following a traumatic childhood Helen joined the police force in 2003, unfortunately Helen discovered the police force wasn’t what she expected when she found herself in the position of challenging colleagues abusing their power. Helen was later assaulted during the execution of her duties leaving her with life long health conditions and now disabled.

After being an athlete when younger and having the honour to represent England at international level playing volleyball, Helen found the transition a difficult one initially.

Once Helen retired from the police force with ill health following an employment tribunal, Helen went back to university to gain a bachelors degree with honours in abuse studies and a MSc in Criminology and used her knowledge and experience to assist victims of police abuse and miscarriages of justice.

Then through lived experiences Helenstarted to research and design accessible clothing, inspired by her autistic niece, Helen launched Adaptive Clothing UK in 2022 and the business has grow from strength to strength. Being nominated for and winning numerous awards Adaptive Clothing UK is a thriving small business.

Helen is currently in talks with a high street brand in relation to stocking her brand.

Helen recently ran as a Independent Parliamentary Candidate in the general election, with a desire to be at the forefront of lawmaking.

Helen is driven by her desire to help people live their best life and to fight for equality for all.

Diversity is a fact, but inclusion is a choice we make every day, because we all deserve a circle of inclusion and influence, however, it’s up to you to create it. So we have to shout the message that we embrace diversity not just tolerate it, until that shout becomes a wisper.

Q&A

Helen Clawson
There is no such thing as the perfect time, I have always done things I was not entirely ready to do. However, that’s when you grow. There will be moments of doubt, but when you forge ahead and push through those moments, that’s when you have a breakthrough.
I can only go of the feedback I have received and have been told that our brand is changing lives, allowing people to feel included and less forgotten about.
To expand our range further to change more lives. To empower children to feel like they can express themselves through fashion by wearing our brand.To be the number 1 children’s adaptive brand in the UK.
Spending time with my family, watching my girls grow and enjoying seeing life through their eye. I love nature as it helps me feel grounded and find stillness and peace in an often chaotic world. Travel and food are big passions of mine too. I also enjoy watching TV programmes and movies.
My girls bring me so much joy and are my everything. Seeing life through their eyes, Watching them grow into wonderful humans with care and compassion for others. Christmas too, I love everything about Christmas, the magic of Christmas, the music, the movies, the hope in the air, everyone seems happier at Christmas. Our dog Toby too, I love being in nature and allowing him to run free. Travel, animals and food too.
Dogs
This is incredibly difficult to answer as I would love to change so much, however, I think change starts with compassion and kindness, I wish we all had more of that, it would be a huge start to creating a fairer more inclusive and equal society.
I believe the biggest barrier for people with disability is how society disables us. Disability exclusion has stemmed from the belief that having a disability makes you ‘less than.’ From stereotyping, stigma, and discrimination all of which are challenges people with disability face every single day. Too many people within the disabled community face exclusion from parts of society other people take for granted and until we change the way society views disabled people change won’t come. We need to break the barrier that it is solely down to the disabled community to make this change too because in order to become an all-inclusive and accessible society we need to change the way we view disability and collaborate with the disabled community to break down barriers.

Areas of expertise

Children and young people, Disability Advocacy, Equality, Fashion, Food and drink, Health and wellbeing, Nature, animals, Politics, Television, radio, podcast

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