Award winner (2025)13th June 2025
Emma – an inspiring individual and significant voice in her groups
To describe Emma Fraser, you’d be describing an incredible woman, doing incredible things for incredible people.
Without question she displays courage and honesty, leading the way for others to follow.
In the past year Emma has led on a subject not widely heard: menopause in the context of learning disabilities.
Her nominator says:
Menopause happens to all women and after working alongside people with learning disabilities and their loved ones…I hadn’t really heard of menopause in the context of learning disabilities; the only time: a misdiagnosis. A lady experiencing significant changes to her health was diagnosed with dementia and later this was retracted and instead she received a correct diagnosis: perimenopausal, getting the treatment she needed to help her menopause symptoms.
Emma was absolutely pivotal in shining a spotlight on this, as previously (due to little research on the topic – we know that women with Down’s syndrome on average experience perimenopausal symptoms around six years earlier than the general population) it needed it.
Working with B.I.L.D. and Dr Louise Newson from the Newson Health Menopause Society (NHMS), Emma help create a series of valuable resources (find one such one here).
They took the form of two resource packs, a webinar and two wide reaching media articles, published for Learning Disability Today and BBC Online.
Dedicated to everything she’s involved in
Because Emma is such an amazing person, the things she has to deal with in her personal health do not stop her from dedicating her time to the Dimensions Council and the other areas she focusses on.
Areas such as giving a talk last year to help other people experiencing the menopause, explaining how she is dealing with this and what effect it is having on her life.
Bravely, she took questions from a 600-strong live webinar audience (made up mainly of health professionals and researchers), with the recording uploaded to the B.I.L.D. website, acting as yet another valuable resource for future learning on this topic.
Speaking so eloquently and honestly at the webinar, Emma also gave professionals and family carers practical tips on what might help other people with learning disabilities.
Her bravery is matched by her resilience and positivity – things her colleagues and friends at Dimensions UK count themselves lucky to feel inspired by.
All of this unsurprisingly and thoroughly deservedly led to Emma being voted as winner of the Dimensions Ultimate ROC Star Award for 2024. It recognised her outstanding contributions in speaking out about her ongoing challenges so that she can help other women who are perhaps experiencing similar.
Emma’s remarkable inspiration is best concluded by Emma herself, saying:
“You have good days and bad days when your moods go up and down, and I learned that is OK.
“I use the traffic light system to show my support workers where I’m at, and I know that to keep talking about how I am feeling helps me cope.
I wanted to share this to help others. Life doesn’t stop with the menopause!
