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Trans Aware Cancer Care: We almost have lift off!
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Accommodations aren’t accommodations when you have to fight so hard for them
As a Disabled person supporting other Disabled people your needs, intensities, and behaviours don’t always align. When your children need you at your best sometimes you are in full fatigue, pain or overwhelm. Sometimes when your children need you at 100% you only have the spoons for 20%. The admin for fighting for your child’s…
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Activism and academia – where can we make the most difference?
I had a really enlightening conversation with two other Autistic researchers a few days ago. Although the conversation was around autoethnography (in which the stories of the researchers is the data collected). The conversation also reminded me that research doesn’t have to be written, quiet, or clean. It can be creative, loud, and messy. Research…
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No road map for trauma recovery
Trauma recovery is heavy but for me it has become lighter over time. Every day I feel lighter, a bit more myself, closer to actualisation. Then the doom comes. There’s not always a trigger, or a warning. There isn’t necessarily a road map from ‘good’ to ‘bad.’ It just comes. The anger. The sadness. The…
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“I’m a little OCD” and other nonsense
Content warning: Intrusive thoughts, mention of HIV / AIDS, Sexual assault, death. I have often heard people say “I’m a little OCD” as in they like to keep things tidy, and that it bothers them if items aren’t where they’re supposed to be. It’s one of those microaggressions people don’t realise is harmful. It seriously…
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It’s not ok to not be ok
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Advocacy, growth, and unlearning
Online advocacy, information sharing, and experience sharing is hard. It comes with good and bad. Thankfully for many of us, the good outweighs the bad. I’ve written somethings in pretty poor taste over the years, there’s been confusion around my use of the words ‘young lady’ (meaning a girl of 10) which went very badly.…
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One does not simply walk into the doctors
There are too many steps to take before Disabled people get through the door at doctors’ surgeries or hospitals. We must unravel our feelings and experiences from those of our usual symptoms of chronic illness. Then we must muster up the energy to book an appointment, if we use AAC this can be even more…
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What I Would Like to Say – at the APPGC
To say my experience yesterday was phenomenal may be an understatement. Myself and colleagues from Help and Care, Macmillan Cancer Support , and the NHS went to the Houses of Parliament. We spoke at the All Party Parliamentary Group on Cancer about the findings from our What I Would Like to Say project. We talked…
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Handling ‘the truth’
“Some people can’t handle the truth… this is just scientific FACT” I see this online all the time. It centres the person who is talking and is problematic for other reasons besides: Fundamentally, statements like these don’t factor who gets to decide what is fact and what is fiction. They’re not based in fact or…