Those of you who watch Emmerdale will have been following a dramatic storyline last night which saw tetraplegic Jackson Walsh commit suicide with the assistance of his mother and boyfriend, Aaron . Now I know there has been a lot of controversy regarding the storyline, a lot of people believe that the storyline should have been more along the lines of showing the positive side of being confined to a wheelchair, rather than showing the negative side. I can certainly understand where these people are coming from, but you have to look at it from the other side as well, not every person who ends up being confined to a wheelchair is able to cope with life, is happy sitting in a wheelchair 24/7, some people cannot cope with life being disabled. From my experience of being in hospital and seeing newly injured people, everyone takes the terrible news that they may never walk again in completely different ways. Take me for instance, I was told that I would probably never walk again and it really didn't affect me at the time, and it hasn't had any detrimental effect on my life since being injured, and that was back in 1986. However, I can remember another young chap who broke his neck who literally cried for days after being told he would never walk again. Thankfully, the same chap seems to be very much like myself and has made a life for himself and make the best of what he is able to do.

I believe the Emmerdale storyline writers have been extremely brave in approaching this storyline of the young tetraplegic in a completely different way to what has been seen before in any other soap. From the handful of disability storylines I can recall, all of them have portrayed disabled people just getting on with life without showing any of the problems that may accompany life in a wheelchair. I can remember Chris Tate who was also an Emmerdale character, he suffered a spinal cord injury to the back during the plane crash, he met his demise by drinking poison, but only after being diagnosed with an incurable brain tumour, and then his suicide was only intended to try and frame his ex-lover. The Jackson Walsh storyline has showed a completely different side to being confined to a wheelchair for life. It has been clear that he is terribly depressed and cannot contemplate living his life being completely paralysed. We have to remember that his level of injury is very high, probably at best a C3. This means that he cannot move his arms or shoulders, he can only move his head. From my point of view I can't imagine what it must be like not being able to move at all, at least I have got fairly good use of my arms so I'm able to drive a vehicle, use a computer completely independently, operate my amateur radio equipment, go fishing and use my rod I myself, if I was completely paralysed, some of these tasks would be impossible, or at best only possible with quite a bit of help from a care assistant. As we could see by Jackson's character, he was able to use a computer, albeit with a little bit of poetic licence. He was also able to operate his electric wheelchair by himself. With the technology that is available nowadays, I think that a person in his position would be able to have somewhat more of an independent lifestyle, i.e. turning lights on and off, opening curtains, operating an electric bed, switching on the television and radio etc etc.

The scriptwriters obviously decided that they only wanted to show him living in one room, only having a couple of people as personal carers. In real life, he could have easily lived in his own house, had two or three care assistants to help them with daily living, funds would have been made available for somebody with such a high level of disability to live an independent life as possible without relying on his immediate family. From this point of view some people might look upon this as a negative theme to follow but obviously that is what they chose to write.

Jackson obviously fell into deep depression from virtually the first time he was told he would never walk again. I'm pleased that the scriptwriters followed through and didn't suddenly turn the storyline into a farce by somehow turning his situation into a miracle where he got up and started walking again. We have seen these so-called crazy miraculous recoveries with characters in soaps such as Eastenders where we saw Jack Branning being shot and sustaining a serious brain injury that rendered him unable to speak properly and almost incapable of walking. Less than a year later he is now walking around as if nothing ever happened.

Last night's episode of Emmerdale was extremely moving, I am not embarrassed to say that I did have a tear in my eye whilst watching Jackson's mother agonise over giving her son a drink that she knew would end his life. Then Aaron who was against the whole thing at the beginning gave Jackson the drink himself which he knew would kill the person he loved. A truly moving and superb episode of Emmerdale which I hope will receive the praise that it deserves.

Finally, hats must be taken off for Danny Miller and Marc Silcock for this excellent portrayal of a man who can't cope with life in a wheelchair, and his partner who can't imagine life without him. Marc did a grand job of portraying a completely paralysed man, believe me I watched his hands on more than one occasion and how he managed not to move his fingers whilst also delivering his lines I will never know.