Robert Watson is a 31-year old man living with Duchenne muscular dystrophy. He loves wheelchair football and is a trustee of DMD Pathfinders, a user led organisation of adults living with Duchenne. He has just been told his care at home is too expensive and he will be moved into a nursing home against his will. Please sign the petition urging Renfrewshire Council to think again before it ruins the life of an intelligent man.

Our friend, Robert Watson, was taken seriously ill in May 2016 and admitted to the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital. He had to have a tracheotomy to enable him to breathe and to deal with the infection. Robert has been in intensive care ever since due to the complexity of care he requires.

It is hoped that soon he will be able to move out of the hospital to continue his recovery. Having always lived at home, our assumption was that, like many of us adults living with DMD with the same needs as Robert, a package of care would be put in place to allow him to live in his own home.

However, neither Robert nor his parents were involved in the last assessment by Renfrewshire Council on behalf of the Renfrewshire Health and Social Care Partnership. He has subsequently been told that putting a care package in place at home would be too expensive and that he will instead need to go into a care home.

This is very much against Robert's will. Robert is highly intelligent, active in the community and a campaigner for the rights of disabled people. Prior to being admitted to hospital he lived with his parents in his own home.

If he is forced into a care home, Robert's mental health will suffer, he won't be able to engage in the community like he does currently, and he is unlikely to have the same dedicated care that he could receive at home.

This cannot be allowed to happen. This is the thin end of the wedge and a return to the 1950s and 60s when disabled people were locked away when their needs were deemed too difficult. Is this really what we can expect in Scotland? Are we really saying that the most vulnerable people don't deserve to live in their own homes? Mahatma Ghandi said that "A nation's greatness is measured by how it treats its weakest members.". Right now, neither Scotland nor the UK as a whole looks that great. Let's stand up and stop this injustice and set a new course for treating disabled people with respect and dignity.

Jon Hastie, on behalf of DMD Pathfinders