I WAS recently invited to a private screening of Amelie at the British Film Institute in London.

My friend is an actress and somehow won a competition. It was great fun to have your own cinema and even more fun that the director happened to be in town and said hello for a Q&A afterwards.

As we were collecting jackets and preparing to leave, one of the party (who I had never met) noticed I used a wheelchair and immediately asked me: ‘What happened to your legs?’ There wasn’t even ‘a nice to meet you’, ‘what’s your name?’, no intro at all, just a bolt out of the blue personal question. Now I have written about this before.

Just to clarify. It is not acceptable to do this. This is especially true when you have no connection to me, other than proximity.

It puts me in an incredibly awkward position as I like to be polite.

I have two options: say I would rather not talk about it and come across as cold and rude and create an atmosphere, or surrender my personal details to a stranger.

It’s a lose-lose as far as I am concerned. On this occasion the conversation continued into an uncomfortable realm. The person in question then asked me if I had seen any good doctors? I should have said ‘Nah, I blagged it’ but in reality I told him I have seen the best in the UK at Stoke Mandeville.

Turns out this guy had somehow saved his wife's life and was a self-declared healer. Now I’m no expert in alternative therapies but I’m guessing the ones I saw at Stoke Mandeville are the ones with traction.

What really galled me was when he handed over his business card and then, while I was talking to my friends, made some kind of healing hand motion over my spine behind my back – as if I wouldn’t notice.

First of all he intruded on my personal information, then my personal space and I found the whole experience quite offensive and unwanted. If I want faith healing, I’ll go and try it myself. Needless to say I won’t be emailing him. Once again the lesson is simple. What happened to me is my business. I’ll talk about it if I to want, otherwise it’s a no-go.

Luckily, this interaction wasn’t representative of the rest of the evening. The others guests were lovely, appropriate and asked me about myself, not my injury.

The story of Amelie, for those that don’t know, is one of subtlety and goodwill to those that deserve it.

It’s a sweet, if odd, heart-warming story about how people can be nice to each other. Amelie sets about improving the lives of others around her. Maybe this man felt inspired to do the same, but I’d much rather have had Amelie’s awkward, shy charming demeanour grace my life than this man and his intrusive, if albeit well-meaning, gestures.