International Day of Persons with a Disability

Friday 3rd December marks International Day of Persons with a Disability, a day very important to many people around the world and can affect more then you think. More then 1 billion people experience a disability and the numbers will continue to increase in the years to come.

Not all disabilities are visible including autism, learning difficulties, mental health conditions, mobility, speech impairments and sensory loss i.e. speech, sight or hearing as well as chronic conditions such as diabetes, chronic pain and sleep disorders. Even though you may not be able to see these invisible impairments, they are STILL there.

Having a disability, be it visible or invisible, does absolutely not in a way shape or form stop from achieving great things in this world. Having struggled with learning and writing (even not being able to hold a knife and fork properly) during my school years, especially in primary school, I thought I would not do well in my exams or even get to sixth form and would always struggle with everything by the time I reached adulthood. But thanks to the help of my family (especially my parents) and adults who supported me personally and academically, I not only managed to get to sixth form to do my A Levels, I then went onto university and graduate with a 2.1 (something I never thought would happen to me).

Even now as an adult, I do still have certain struggles with certain things I'm not gonna lie such as social anxiety and having things, even the most simplest ones, affect me emotionally and mentally. The difference for me now is that I have a wide range of coping strategies and techniques to help me ride out these difficult feelings.

Even though I'm not exactly where I want to be in my life right now, I try to focus on the positive things that I have achieved personally, academically and professionally as well as being grateful for the things I do have in my life such as family, friends, a full time job, having adventures however big or small, getting to meet interesting people (including famous ones I grew up watching from various comic con visits, concerts, live events etc) and especially grateful for creating Blue Healing as it is a safe platform space where I can be 100% myself and get to chat to like minded people about topic I LOVE talking and being practical about.

To anyone out experiencing any disability, please don't ever feel like this hurdle can hold you back and remember that you can still achieve anything when you put your mind to it and to finish off with a quote one of my favourite sayings "It's not how you start, it's how you finish" 💙💙💙