We are called CROSSROADS after the popular TV soap-opera, set in a fictional King’s Oak motel, that ran from 1964 until 1988. The show was groundbreaking because it featured a disabled leading character, Sandy Richardson, played by Roger Tonge, an actor bravely battling Hodgkin’s Disease. To accomodate Roger’s disability and keep him in the show, a plotline was developed in which Sandy suffered a car crash and became paraplegic.
There were frequent scenes featuring care support workers, leading real-life, unpaid carers to write in to the production company (ATV) asking where they could receive such support. In response, ATV generously donated £10,000 to start a pilot care support scheme, naming it CROSSROADS CARE after the show.