Archive for June, 2011

After Katie: Standing Up For Harvey, Katie done a live webchat

Just Katie’s

Katie is doing a webchat after her Standing up for Harvey documentry!!

Katie: Hi Ross, Yes I would adopt another disabled boy or a girl, any age.

Katie: Hi Laura, I absolutely want more kids. About 8 if I can!

Katie: Hi Kevin, Yes I would absolutely love to get involved in an autism campaign.

Katie: I’ve got a book coming out this month and this Christmas – so I will be at Manchester for one of the signings.

Katie: Hi Paige, No I haven’t had any apologies from Frankie Boyle. I only want a sorry from him.

Katie: To lots of you, it’s so important to raise awareness of disability. This documentary has now broadened my knowledge of the subject.

Katie: Hi Robert, I will try and do anything inspirational. And I don’t have to do it front of the press just to get a pat on the back.

Katie: I will do anything for people to take note of important issues like the ones raised tonight.

Katie: You cope with disability because you have to – it’s not a chore. I love all my kids the same, but Harvey has taken me on a special journey I never thought I would have.

Katie: Hi Hannah, I wear Opi nail polish!

Katie: Hi Sarah, I spend a lot of time at home with Harvey and the kids as I work a lot from home.

Katie: Hi Abby, Absolutely I would have another child who had the same disability as Harvey. Nobody is perfect.

Katie: Hi Becky, Frankie would get a very hard time from the public if he didn’t say sorry. We all make mistakes.

Katie: Without sounding cheesy, Harvey just loves being with me!

Katie: I’m taking the kids from the show to the karaoke and a nightclub. The girl who was promised a makeover from Gary will be getting one, yes.

Katie: In answer to heaps of you about what Harvey likes to do – Harvey loves going on aeroplanes because he thinks he’s getting a pizza!

Katie: Thank you so much for your support – there is so much of it on here tonight. Regardless of what people think of me, I am still a normal mum and I do what I can for my kids and I will continue to fight for my kids.

Katie: Hi Laura, I showed Harvey the documentary tonight and he looked confused – as in that was me? He would repeat his answers as though I had asked him in real life. So lovely.

Katie: Hi Keola, I think Frankie doesn’t want to apologise because he thinks he’s the big ‘I am’ and then he would be lowering his credibility as a comedian. But he has shocked the wrong person.

Katie: Hi Dan, yes! Why don’t we start a Twittition?? Great idea. Let’s do it.

Katie: I just want to say though that I don’t want to give Frankie Boyle undue publicity – only as long as he is seen as a shameful man.

Katie: Hi Gemma, other charities I support is the Vision charity, which supports blind and partially sighted people.

Katie: Hi Vicky, I would suggest Frankie could become a part of a charity to help raise money if he does want to say sorry.

Katie: Hi Hannah, Junior and Princess are used to Harvey and his disability. So if Harvey is having a tantrum they know to stay away – Princess is a little madam anyway!

Katie: Hi Megan, I’m cooking my dinner at the moment actually and there are frog magnets all over the fridge. Everything is frogs with Harvey.

Katie: #makefrankieboyleapologise is trending on Twitter. Yes!

Katie: Hi Clare, I’m next in Bluewater when I next get a day off, which isn’t until August….

Katie: Hi Amanda, his little snigger wound me up. I absolutely can’t stand people who are ignorant about disability. I need the public behind me.

Katie: Hi Keely, my new show starts in September. I am loving it. They’ll see a different side to me in my new show, just as they did tonight. I think people are starting to see that I’m just a normal person who’s been lucky in life.

Katie: Hi Leanne, I will give Harvey a cuddle and big kiss on the lips from everyone!

Katie: I hope I’ve inspired people with disabilities to not be ashamed and to be happy. It;s good to be unique.

Katie: Hi Stephanie, be strong. You’re special people – always know that what you do is very rewarding. Pat yourselves on the back for doing such a great job, because it takes patience and time. Not everyone has that.

Katie: Hi Rebecca, Junior and Princess never feel deprived because of Harvey’s condition. There is so much love to go around, they are never short of attention.

Katie: Hi Vicky, autism is on a massive spectrum – they all have different traits. Be strong and go with it – your son is very special.

Katie: Hi Gareth, you can help on Twitter. I will start drumming up support through charity work, although I’ve done my knee in so it probably won’t be through marathons…

Katie: Hi Helen, I’m sure on my book signings I’ll be in Cardiff!

Katie: Hi Kiran, let’s all get together and think of a plan. Firstly tweet with hashtag #makefrankieboyleapologise

Katie: Right guys, thank you so much for your messages. I’m off to have my dinner now so have a good night. Thank you so much for watching. Loved your support. Night night. xx

Click here to read the whole chat

Read the rest of this entry »

MY SON, Harvey, turned nine last month, and we held a little party to celebrate. The only guests were immediate family — too much activity causes Harvey stress and his behaviour can become disruptive — but he did have a big cake decorated with a picture of a frog.

Harvey loves cakes. He always enjoys blowing out the candles, and he adores frogs. They are his latest obsession. He draws them so carefully — the bulging eyes, the long back legs — and colours them in bright green. At the moment, every scrap of paper in the house is covered in leaping frogs.

The cake and the frog obsession explain a lot about Harvey. Most mothers of nine-year-olds might boast that their child is learning French or the violin. I’m just pleased and proud that Harvey can draw, observe and see colours.

Soon after he was born, I was told he had a serious problem with his sight. Later, I learned that he was blind. Actually, he has some residual vision, and he is brilliant at using it. He recognises colours and shapes. He has even learned to turn them into pictures.

He draws the same things obsessively, over and over again. First it was aeroplanes, then rainbows, now it’s frogs. That’s down to his autism. Like most children with the condition, he periodically gets fixated on one subject. He is also compulsive about routines. Nothing must disturb Harvey’s ordered world, or there is hell to pay.

The cake is another matter. Harvey eats and eats, and if I did not stop him he would do so continually. He is prone to weight-gain, but he is not greedy. He has a clinical condition — I’ll come to that later — which means he can’t control his appetite. The hormones that control his growth are also out of kilter. So he is bigger than most kids. But to the ignorant, Harvey is just a big, fat, blind kid — and he has been called that many times.

I’ve only skimmed the surface of the problems facing my much-loved eldest child, but by now you know enough about Harvey’s disabilities to understand the hurdles he leaps each day.

So you will understand the extent of my shock and anger when I learned that Frankie Boyle, the comedian — though he barely deserves the title — had singled my son out to be the butt of a vile ‘joke’.

To convey the full impact of what Boyle said on his Channel 4 ‘comedy’ show last December, I must, I’m afraid, repeat his offensive remarks in full.

To begin with, he said my exhusband, Peter Andre, and I had been fighting over custody of Harvey. ‘Eventually one of them will lose and have to keep him,’ Boyle said.

That is the type of cruel offence we expect disabled people to accept. If you are disabled, you are a burden, and people want rid of you.

Then Boyle made a remark so offensive it has no place in civilised society. Referring to my second marriage, to Alex Reid — we have since separated — he said: ‘I have a theory about the reason Jordan married a cage-fighter — she needed a man strong enough to stop Harvey from f***ing her.’

I can’t overstate the outrage and revulsion I felt when I heard this attack on my vulnerable, disabled son. I am used to defending myself against insults and, at times, justified criticism.

I don’t deny there are aspects of my own life and past that have been controversial. I’ve made mistakes in equal measure to my success, but I can answer back — and I do. Harvey can’t.

Boyle’s remark is vile on so many levels. Sadly, I’ve grown used to insensitive jokes about Harvey’s size. When Heat magazine published a sticker with the words ‘Harvey wants to eat me!’ across it, I was appalled.

But at least the magazine apologised. Boyle and Channel 4 have done neither. Boyle’s disgusting suggestion slandered my innocent son and insulted every disabled person in Britain.

Imagine if the reason Boyle gave for saying Harvey was capable of raping me was not because of his disability but because he is black. People would understand how discriminatory that is. It is just as discriminatory when the j oke i s based on someone’s disability.

That is why I have decided to talk openly, and in detail, about Harvey for the first time.

Tonight my television documentary about him, Katie: Standing Up For Harvey, introduces viewers to my campaign on behalf of every disabled child and adult in Britain. I hope that, through the programme, Harvey’s disabilities will highlight the difficulties — and also the positives — faced by children with disabilities, and their families.

I have been forced to consider my role in putting Harvey in the firing line for Boyle’s humour. He, and Channel 4, have pointed out that I have put Harvey in the public domain by being photographed and filmed with him. As a result, I have been accused of hypocrisy.

I understand that to an extent, and take it on the chin. But I have spent a lot of time talking to people and organisations who see Harvey as a positive role model, and I decided it was in my son’s interest — and in the interest of raising disability awareness — that he play a public role.

This i s no j ustification for the discrimination Harvey has suffered. I want people to stop and think before they make crass jokes against people who can’t defend themselves.

Although the media regulator Ofcom upheld 500 complaints about Boyle’s remarks, and condemned Channel 4 for broadcasting them, i t didn’t demand an on-air apology. Why not?

The decision was indefensible. As the broadcaster of the Paralympics, Channel 4 is, I feel, guilty of doublestandards. They should never have broadcast Boyle’s foul joke.

Even the Cabinet Minister responsible for broadcasting, Jeremy Hunt — and a committee of MPs — condemned Channel 4, and its boss David Abrahams, for refusing to apologise.

Since April, when Ofcom made its ruling, I have repeatedly asked Boyle, Abrahams and Channel 4 to apologise, to Harvey and to me. They have ignored my requests. Would they have been so blasé if Boyle’s slur had been racist? No chance.

So how would I like Boyle — a fatherof-two who, I have since learned, once worked in a care home — to make amends for his insult?

Aside from an apology, I would also like him to learn some respect for those who are not able-bodied. Perhaps he would like to visit Harvey and spend a day in his shoes?

He would learn a valuable lesson. From Harvey’s example, Boyle might just begin to understand the nature of innocence.

Harvey has a greeting he learned from me as a little boy. ‘Hello sweetheart,’ he says, as he rubs his finger along your chin.

He is funny, too, and a wonderful mimic. He catches exactly the tone of his nanny’s voice — I have one daytime helper who does not live in — when she says: ‘See you later. Byeee!’

It is not easy dealing with Harvey’s challenging behaviour. To me, however, he will always be my perfect boy. I would not swap him for an ablebodied child, or send him to live in residential care. My home will be his until the day I die and beyond — but looking after him is relentless. He can’t be left alone for a moment; we have to watch his every move.

So how did it all begin? Harvey was born i n May 2002 i n hospital in Brighton. His dad is the former footballer Dwight Yorke. I was besotted with my first baby (I’ve since had a son, Junior, six, and daughter Princess, four, with Peter Andre).

He was a calm, happy, adorable little boy. But when, at his routine six-week check, doctors told me his eyes were not following a moving object, that they were not focusing properly, I steeled myself for the worst.

But I didn’t cry. I think of myself as resilient, strong and resourceful. I just prepared myself for the journey ahead.

It hasn’t been an easy one. We learned the full extent of Harvey’s disabilities little by little. To the illinformed, Harvey may just appear to be fat and blind. To those of us who know the details, he faces many physical challenges.

He has septo-optic dysplasia, which causes his vision problems, and gland, which controls growth and physical development.

He also has Prader-Willi syndrome, a rare genetic condition affecting the area of the brain that controls appetite. He is always thirsty, and always wants to eat.

Being autistic, he can be disruptive i f his routine i s suddenly changed without warning.

Harvey has taught me the virtue of patience. And, through him, too, I have learned the value of unconditional love. My dear mum, Amy, gave up a much-loved job to help me care for him. If I am not there for the school run — and it’s a two-handed job because Harvey’s school is in Kent, while Junior and Princess go to schools in East Sussex — Mum will step in to help our nanny ferry the kids to school. Harvey’s morning routine cannot be altered. Sometimes a tiny change in the order of things — his toast cut into the wrong shape at breakfast time or a window slamming — will send him into a frenzy of kicking and punching.

Our TVs are all covered with shatter-proof Perspex panels. I’ve lost count of the number of laptops and screens he has smashed. And if he doesn’t want to get into the car, he will sprawl on the floor, launch his head at a wall, or hit out at anyone in his path.

But on the days when he feels happy, he charms us all. He will sit in the car with me, urging me to go fast over the speed bumps. To Harvey, a car journey can be as much fun as a day at a theme park.

He speaks beautifully — we joke that he is the ‘posh’ member of the f amily — and his memory is wonderful. Sometimes he’ll repeat phrases we’d rather he forgot. ‘What’s happened to the bloody boiler?’ I heard him parroting the other day, after I’d been complaining months ago about the pool not heating up.

No doubt you’ll be thinking at this point: ‘Isn’t she lucky? She can afford a pool, a lovely home, a nanny.’ Of course, I am so much more fortunate than many parents who are caring, bravely and often without outside help, for disabled children. I know this and I appreciate that, in this respect at least, I am blessed.

But there would be no difference in the care a boy like Harvey needs whether he was born into privilege or poverty, and I understand the pressure that having such a child can put on any family.

Every day, six times a day, he needs medication to control and treat his various conditions. His drugs must be taken at 7am, 8am, 12.30pm, 2.30pm, 4.30pm and 8pm.

Every night before bed, there are two oral medicines which Harvey likes to take himself, and an injection which I give him (he chooses which leg). Without his drugs, he dies — it’s as simple as that.

I don’t think about the day I’m no longer here to care for him, though I’ve made financial arrangements for him to be looked after always. As long as I have breath and life, he will live at home with me.

We have good days and bad days, funny days and challenging days, but I do not focus on what Harvey cannot do. He is my son and I love him to bits, which is why I will fight like a tigress for him — and for millions of children like him — against bullies like Frankie Boyle and the broadcasters who air him.

Boyle may think his humour is brave and ground-breaking. I think it’s pitiful, sickening and cruel. If he met my son, I think he’d feel remorse and shame for the remarks he made.

Every day I learn about love, fortitude and patience from Harvey. He is my perfect boy. He is my inspiration.

Katie: Standing Up For Harvey is on Sky Living tonight at 9pm.

Katie Price has spoke out about her decision to make a fly-on-the-wall documentary show featuring her disabled son Harvey.

The former glamour model told Sky TV that she “never wanted” to make a show about her son but was determine to “defend” the boy following the outrageous sick jokes made at his expense by Scots comedian Frankie Boyle.

Boyle made the cruel jibes at the disabled youngster during an episode of his Tramadol Nights show on Channel 4.

Katie is quoted as saying:”Harvey is a wonderful boy. I am so proud of how he deals every day with his disability.

“He has been my one constant over the past eight years and, alongside Junior and Princess, remains the most important person in my life.

“But, of course, Harvey doesn’t have the voice to defend himself, so through this documentary I hope to encourage other people to appreciate the difficulties that children with disability and their parents face every day.”

She added: “I am lucky to be able to make this film and hope it helps those who struggle to cope with disability and prejudice without the support network I have.”

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Credit & Source: STV.TV

Credit: Paige @ ThePricey Forum

At Terrence Higgins Trust Gala’s event Katie wore Brian Lichtenberg’s One Shoulder Padded Dress, the dress is available in various colours and is also seen on various celebs such as Paris Hilton and Stephanie Pratt

Available to purchase at Singer22.com

Dedication is what you need if you want to be a record breaker. Roy Castle taught us that (ask your mum), and it’s definitely something that Katie Price is not short of.

So we certainly wouldn’t bet against her being successful in her bid to break the record for the biggest book signing in the world.

And that’s exactly what she’s aiming to do at the O2 Academy in Leeds on July 27 – where she is going to try to sign more than 1,951 copies of her new novel The Comeback Girl in a single sitting.

That being the record set by chess legend Anatoli Karpov during an eight-hour session back in 2006.

She said: “You know me, I’ve always had a competitive streak so when it was suggested that I try to break a Guinness World Record for a book signing, I thought, ‘Bring it on!’.

“I love meeting my fans and I can’t wait to make them part of this world record. I really hope they will come out to support me in Leeds on July 27 and as a thank you I’m going to dedicate my next book to them and print all their names in the front.”

Credit & Source: AOL Celebrity

Cheryl Cole has quit being a TV judge but Katie Price is busy holding her own auditions.

The glamour girl is currently searching for the new Jordan for her new reality programme Discovered By Katie Price.

‘I’m looking for someone like me, someone determined to devote themselves to their modelling career,’ Katie, 33, tells the Daily Star.

‘I’m looking for model looks, a killer body, bags of ambition, a rock-solid personality, have-a-go attitude and a good sense of humour.’

Savvy businesswoman Katie – who’s put her name to multiple products including a fashion line, equestrian gear and numerous books – has set up new modelling agency Black Sheep Management to help kick start her winner’s career.

And you can prove you’re the talented individual she’s ready to discover.

‘London auditions at Westfield tomorrow from 9am,’ Katie Tweeted this morning, ‘love to see some more wow factor serious men auditioning too – come along and impress us!’

Credit & Source: NOW Magazine

Uploaded by anthonynelsonuk via youtube

KATIE Price is clearly taking her new role as model agency boss VERY seriously.
Either that, or Katie Price has had a sneaky meeting with Gok Wan and got a glam new makeover.

Katie, who is currently on the lookout for the new face of her modelling agency, Black Sheep Management, wowed us with her outfit at the Leeds auditions recently.

The glamour model arrived dressed in a fitted white shift dress with a graduated-balloon skirt, which featured a sophisti-cat decorative pearl collar.

Katie, who wore her blonde locks in her trademark loose waves, teamed her pretty frock with strappy pink studded stilettos and a gigantic pair of sunglasses.

Judging by the smiley woman whose arm she’s holding on to, it’s not just us who are dead impressed with Katie’s new look.

Or perhaps she was having a giggle as Katie tried to walk in those teetering stilettos – we can’t be sure.

Anyway, we like her version of power-dressing, so end of.

Credit & Source: OK