This Christmas I am asking friends and family to support disabled children in Tanzania to get an education.

I worked for many years as a Special Needs teacher and spent a really special day with my old college friends in May this year collecting our honorary degrees.

At college we were taught the importance of the first five years of a child's life for future development, this is when the foundations for learning, health and behaviour are laid down. Children who do not have any form of pre-primary education are hugely disadvantaged and in my experience often do not catch up with their peers.

My lovely daughter works for ADD International and they are currently piloting a project in Tanzania to get disabled children enrolled on a pre-Primary education programme. I am passionate about supporting the rights of disabled people ever since my mother suffered a stroke and was left paralysed on one side of her body after the death of my father.  I saw first hand how difficult it was for her as a lone surviving parent with limited funds, compounded by a physical impairment which meant she had access problems - there were far fewer facilities for disabled people at that time.

Education should be for all and disabled children should have the same starting point as their peers. I am donating my Christmas to the 'My right to a future'  appeal and so if you were thinking of sending me a card or perhaps even buying me a gift then I would love you instead to make a donation to this amazing cause and help get more disabled children into school where they belong.