Lady Masham of Ilton obituary

Susan Cunliffe-Lister, Lady Masham of Ilton, who has died aged 87, was the longest-serving female member of the House of Lords – she was made a life peer in 1970 – and a prominent campaigner for better support and access for disabled people.

Twice a gold medallist at the Paralympics, following her paralysis after a riding accident, she championed myriad health causes and founded the Spinal Injuries Association in 1974. Her own lived experience was a vital spur to her work.

“Disability is very complicated,” she said. Her frustration at frequent failures to ease the challenges it posed fuelled her passion to effect change.

In 1958 Susan Sinclair, as she then was, found her life dramatically altered when she was pursing a point-to-point triumph in Wiltshire. Her horse fell while going over one of the course’s 24 jumps, rolling on top of her. Another horse kicked her in the stomach, causing an enormous haemorrhage. Fractures to three vertebrae in her back left her paralysed from the chest down.

Within 24 hours, she was transferred from Swindon to the specialist spinal unit at Stoke Mandeville hospital in Buckinghamshire. Its chief doctor, the neurologist Sir Ludwig Guttmann, is now regarded as the founder of the Paralympic movement, and sporting pursuits became an essential thread in her nine months of rehabilitation there.

The initial process was infused with pain. The first time Sinclair got into a wheelchair, she passed out because of poor circulation. Guttmann and his physiotherapists quickly nudged her to try archery to help her physical and mental recuperation. A lifelong affection for table tennis was stirred too. She returned to riding, utilising an adapted saddle she helped to design.

Swimming provided the platform,