A MUM from Alexandria has launched a campaign highlighting the upset and humiliation often caused to people with hidden disabilities.

Bev Burns says the public are often abusive to blue badge holders who show no outward sign of being disabled.

Bev, who has a blue badge herself, says this happens when people who look “normal” park in disabled spaces or use disabled toilets.

She says she regularly gets filthy looks, tutting and eye-rolling from people unaware of her disabilities caused by chronic pain.

She said: “If they see me walking away from my car in a disabled space they think I am ‘normal’ and that I have borrowed someone’s blue badge to use for my own convenience.

“I don’t use a wheelchair at the moment, however I was told by specialist in Edinburgh that there is good chance I will end up in one.”

The mum of three has now launched a Facebook page called “Smiling Through” with the aim of stopping people like herself being abused.

Bev has also launched a petition calling for changes to the traditional disabled signs which carry a wheelchair logo because, she points out, many people with disabilities do not always need to use a wheelchair.

She said: “The wheelchair sign can be misleading and should carry an A for ‘accessible’ or ‘adapted’ - indicating it is for those who have a need for specially adapted equipment or spaces.

“Surely if this was changed, and some specialist promotions and education campaigns were run with it, the abuse would end?

“We are not all abusing the system, we are genuine, and we need this!

“This is not about sympathy, this is about simple awareness and getting us all out the house and back to some sort of life with out conflict.”

Bev, 39, who formerly ran the Rowantree Tavern in Jamestown with husband Steve before moving to Kilcreggan, suffers from fibromyalgia with joint hyperactivity which causes constant pain.

She said: “I have pain in every part of my body which keeps me off my sleep. This is not a faddy illness – there is no cure no one knows how to deal with this in the NHS.”

Bev says she understands why some people react as they do when they see someone with no obvious disability using a blue badge.

“They think they are doing the right thing by commenting or tut-tutting and that they are standing up for disabled people.

“They think the badge has been borrowed. Disabled people have to answer rigorous and humiliating questions when they apply for a badge so they are not going to let someone borrow it.”

Bev points to the fact that there are dozens of conditions which cause “hidden disabilities”, including multiple sclerosis, diabetes, asthma, Crohn’s Disease, autism and chronic fatigue syndrome.

She says: “Not everyone is aware that disability doesn’t always take the form of someone in a wheelchair, or even using a frame or stick.

“That doesn’t mean that they are any less entitled or of need of this very special badge or use of special facilities.

“I chose the name Smiling Through for the campaign, as that commonly says it all about us with invisible disabilities.”

Kayleigh Thorpe, ENABLE Scotland’s head of campaigns, policy and activism, said: “Our members have faced similar difficulties to Bev for some time.

“A few years ago, our members campaigned to protect their entitlement to a concessionary bus pass. Its value to people who have a learning disability, allowing them access to public transport and independent travel, was recognised and protected by the Scottish Government.

“Yet our members still tell us they have been challenged by transport staff and members of the public for using their card as their disability is not always physically or visually obvious to others.

“It is an all too common complaint and one we think has no place in a tolerant and caring society.

“We hope this new site helps raise awareness of the issue.”