A DISABLED Kidderminster worker who found love on a reality TV programme says the experience has “changed” her life.

Kate Brackley, 30, who has Down’s syndrome and works at the British Institute of Learning Disabilities, Green Street, was paired with 32-year-old Simon Macgregor on Channel 4’s The Undateables.

Filming took place last summer and the programme was shown on Tuesday night.

Miss Brackley applied for the show through Stars in the Sky, a dating service for adults with learning disabilities, based at Our Way Self Advocacy, Church Street, Kidderminster, and watched the show with Mr Macgregor and more than 30 friends and family.

In the programme, Miss Brackley, who writes love poetry, said she “longed for a husband”.

She told The Shuttle: “We are arranging to meet again – we are getting on really well and will see how it goes from here.

“The show has given me a lot of confidence to get on with my life and I have a whole new set of skills.”

She said the programme’s title was controversial but the show did help counter stereotypes that people with disabilities could not or should not date.

“I did not really like the title because I want to be seen as dateable,” added Miss Brackley. “Disabled people want to be treated in the same way as everybody else and included in society and dating.”

Miss Brackley, who lives in Droitwich, was diagnosed at birth with her condition. It leads to characteristic, physical and intellectual problems due to the person inheriting an extra copy of a chromosome but she said it had “never held me back”.

“I have so many positive things in my life,” she added. “A steady job, a home of my own and now Simon.”

Rachel Fernihough, Our Way development worker, said: “Kate is so charismatic, full of life and is such an exciting and lovely person.

“Everyone has the right to love and often society excludes people for many different reasons but this programme shows these people really are dateable and they do find love and happiness.”