Meet Lily. She’s twenty-two, and broadly speaking has Global Developmental Delay. She also happens to be my older sister.

Lily has always wanted a special someone she can be with. She’s enrolled in a special needs college course twice a week. Two other days are spent working in the kitchen of a local cafe. For years she’s longed for a boyfriend. Quite simply, that’s all she wants. She’d love to have someone to see on weekends and after college, instead of staring out of her window and Facebook messaging old school friends, dating right back to primary school.

This is why our mum decided to put her forward for the Channel 4 series, “The Undateables.” the title obviously holds misconceptions. The aim of the programme is to help people with difficulties, (whether it be deafness, tourettes or special needs like Lily) find someone they could start a relationship with.

The key part of the programme is when the title comes on, and the “un” of the undateables is knocked off the screen. The whole point of the programme is that everyone deserves a chance for love. Many don’t understand and think the people of the show, especially those with needs which aren’t as socially accepted, such as Lily’s needs, have been put up to look like a fool and are to be laughed at. They didn’t see Lily having three interviews on Facetime with researchers, or the psychological check she had to have from a neutral party psychotherapist to confirm she was participating of her own free will.

When she learnt she was meeting Daniel Wakeford, who has autism and been on the show several times before, she was madly, utterly, head over heels. Everything in her world, and Daniels world, is black and white. There is no confusion. They wanted to be together before they even met.

Together with our little sister, we crowded into my room to pretend to finish her hair and makeup for the cameras. “What are you looking for in Daniel, Lily?” I asked her for the tenth time.

“Um… Handsome, Good looking.”

I stifled a laugh.

“Okay, but what about his personality?” she paused for a moment, then told me, very seriously, “good hair!”

We all laughed that time. That moment was never aired. What a waste.

Daniel is a singer. He sings in gigs, has two albums, a christmas single, the list goes on. he’s given Lily a whole new social life. Lily’s evenings are no-longer Eastenders and looking out of the window, and it’s all thanks to the undateables.

Anyway, even if one or two insensitive and ignorant people did laugh at her, she doesn’t know, she just thinks she’s famous now.