Latest news with #disabilityAwareness
Yahoo
02-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Family set to be filmed for DIY SOS launch appeal to bring 13-year-old son home
A family set to be filmed on DIY SOS has issued an urgent appeal for help to bring their 13-year-old son home. Dan Flemen's life drastically changed after he began experiencing flu-like symptoms in November 2022. This turned out to be a sign of a severe brain tumour. Dan went from being an active teenager volunteering at church to needing constant care after a stroke left him with severe disabilities. He is now non-verbal, cannot sit unaided, requires night-time ventilation support, and needs round-the-clock care. Dan has had to stay in hospital since his diagnosis (Image: Supplied) Due to the extensively specialised care Dan now requires, his family home no longer meets the requirements for his needs. His house in Freckleton, Lancashire, is not accessible, meaning that Dan has had to stay in hospital since his diagnosis in November 2022. Dan's mum, Julie, has moved into hospital accommodation to be close to her son, while his dad, Nigel, and two sisters travel more than 50 miles to be with him. The renovations required to transform the family home into a safe and suitable environment for Dan include a private accessible bedroom, an adapted bathroom, facilities for full-time care and a suitable social space. Getting these changes made quickly and under budget means Dan can be with his family as soon as the work is finished. However, these renovations are far beyond the family's means. Good news has come in the form of a community effort. READ MORE: Pictures: Scooter rally returns as crowds enjoy ride-in and live music Why Darwen's Mill & Yarn deserves your vote in best barbers contest Ian McKellen 'holds back tears' after appearing at Glastonbury with Scissor Sisters The BBC's DIY SOS series has stepped up and will air the family's journey, with filming in Freckleton scheduled from July 16 to 23. Contributions have also come from the automotive industry charity, Ben, and the local authority is also offering support. However, volunteers and contributions are still needed. If you would like to donate, more information can be found here:
WebMD
01-07-2025
- Health
- WebMD
Learning to Say No
Living with myasthenia gravis (MG) is like budgeting energy on a card with an unpredictable limit. Some days, I make it to the end of the day with credit to spare. Others, I'm overdrawn by 10 a.m. and paying in symptoms. The hardest part? Learning to say no without guilt, over-explaining, or second-guessing myself. I used to pride myself on being up for anything. I was a yes person. Yes to plans. Yes to last-minute meetups. Yes to helping, joining, contributing, showing up. I equated saying yes with being dependable, fun, successful, and even lovable. But when you live with a condition that messes with your muscle strength, energy, and general sense of control, yes can come with consequences. Sometimes painful ones. It's not just that I get tired. It's that my tiredness hits like a brick wall. My body doesn't negotiate. When I'm out of steam, I'm out. Muscles weaken, eyelids droop, and even speaking can feel like lifting weights with my tongue. Pushing through isn't an option. It's a gamble with my health. I remember saying to my dad once, 'If anyone lived a day in my body, they'd wonder how I managed to leave the house.' And I mean it. The symptoms can be all-encompassing: weakness, fatigue, fog, pain. Unfortunately, people don't always understand that. Especially when it's an invisible disability. You look fine on the outside, so people assume you're fine. But what's happening internally is a whole different reality. Still, I kept trying. I'd agree to things, then quietly dread them and hope I'd magically wake up with the strength to power through. Spoiler: I usually didn't. I'd cancel last minute and feel awful, or go anyway and pay with a flare-up. It wasn't sustainable, and it wasn't kind to me. Lately, I've been reading The Let Them Theory by Mel Robbins. It's helped me shift the way I think. The core idea is simple. If people want to misunderstand you, be disappointed, judge, or push their own expectations on you, let them. It's not your job to manage their feelings. Your only job is to protect your own boundaries. That really hit home. Because half of my energy went to managing other people's reactions. 'What will they think if I cancel again?' 'Will they still invite me next time?' 'Am I letting them down?' But those are heavy questions for someone who already wakes up with a low battery. The truth is, people will think what they want. Let them. You know your body. You know your limits. You don't owe anyone an explanation that costs your health. Saying no used to feel like failure. Now, I see it as an act of self-respect. I plan my days around how I actually feel, not how I wish I felt. I space things out, build in recovery time, and if a flare is looming, I cancel unapologetically. When you live with MG, your choices are: honor your limits or be forced to later. And something interesting happened when I started doing that. The right people stayed. They understood. They supported me. The people who didn't? Let them. So now, I try to filter my energy like gold dust. I protect it fiercely. I say no when I need to, without guilt or drama. Some days, that means doing less. Some days, it means doing nothing. But all days, it means being on my own side. If you're navigating life with MG or another chronic health condition, please know this: You don't have to justify your needs to anyone. Rest isn't weakness. Saying no isn't rude. Protecting your peace isn't selfish. Let them think what they want. Let them talk. Let them go.
Washington Post
27-06-2025
- Washington Post
I have an invisible disability. Getting travel accommodations is tough.
In April, as I stepped onto a cruise ship with my family, I should have been excited. But often, I don't have the luxury of feeling that first moment of vacation bliss. Living with multiple sclerosis, I find walking and standing a burden. And accommodations that would enable me to navigate a vacation with ease have been difficult to get because my disability is invisible.
BBC News
26-06-2025
- Entertainment
- BBC News
Glastonbury festival: 'My stoma won't stop me enjoying myself'
Outfits picked, backpack packed, tickets at the ready - like anyone else heading for Glastonbury this week, Lucy Smith-Butler is gearing up for one of the biggest events in the festival she has one other consideration - packing the essentials for her stoma 26-year-old had surgery to get the stoma bag fitted when she was 19, two years after being diagnosed with a bowel disease called ulcerative colitis, a long-term condition which causes inflammation of parts of the digestive stoma, a small hole in her abdomen, removes the waste from her body into the fitted bag, which Lucy has to regularly empty. Over the past few days, she has been sharing her festival prep with her 21,000 TikTok followers."I'm just excited to see it," she says, referencing what will be her first Glastonbury experience."I love festivals because you just disappear from reality for a while." This may be Lucy's first experience of Glastonbury, but she has been a festival enthusiast since she was 13 years she says attending events before she had her surgery was difficult."I just didn't know what the facilities would be like," she says."But then as soon as I had my stoma bag, I was like, 'Oh, right well, let's make this work again.'"Lucy's condition means she has additional access needs and requires a clean space to change her stoma bag, as well as access to disabled toilets. She says it's not always been a pleasant experience, recalling one instance where she says she had to physically show a steward her stoma bag before she was allowed to use an accessible of the biggest problems Lucy says she faces is dirty festival toilets - even the accessible ones which are used less."I just changed my stoma bag in my tent most of the time, just because I know who's been in there, and it feels like the cleanest place," she says."There should be places for us that are clean and are up to these standards."Lucy is hoping that will be the case this week, and has so far been impressed with her experience of arranging her accessibility needs at Glastonbury. She says she booked her tickets as normal and then contacted the festival to arrange access to the areas says there are no separate weekend tickets for festival-goers with access requirements, but they are committed to being an event which is accessible to all. Anyone needing to use any of the access facilities must complete the festival's online access application form, and have either a valid access card or the digital Glastonbury access access card translates a person's disability or impairment into symbols, to communicate their access needs to the venues and service providers."The process for Glastonbury was a lot more thorough than any other festival that I've ever been to," Lucy of the festival, she was sent a wristband with a code number on to be able to get into the accessible toilets - something she says she has never seen at a festival her large social media following, Lucy says she is determined to raise awareness of what it's like to go to festivals and other big events with a stoma bag, or other accessibility needs. Her followers often reach out to her for advice, she says, adding that her top tips are to:Contact the festival as soon as you have booked your tickets"Prepare, prepare, prepare" – prepare for everything that might happenCarry all your supplies with you all the timeGo with friends who are supportive and understand your needsAnd most importantly: don't forget to enjoy yourself As well as being able to share her experiences and advice online, Lucy says her social media presence has helped her to make friends at festivals too."I was literally bawling my eyes out," she says as she remembers a chance meeting with someone who had decided to attend their very first festival after finding Lucy's social media page."When you know you've helped someone, it just feels really nice."Ultimately, Lucy says the best thing to do as someone feeling nervous about going to a festival, but wanting to see what it's like, is just to give it a the difficulties she has experienced both before and after her surgery, Lucy says she now "can't imagine a world where I wouldn't go"."The worst that can happen is that I might have a leak, and then I'll just sort it out," she says."You've just got to try it."
Yahoo
23-06-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Muhlenberg High School graduate doesn't let sight impairment slow her down
Quinn Wagner remembers trying to answer the questions as an elementary school student, but not really knowing how. 'It was quite confusing growing up legally blind,' she said. 'People are curious about it. Other kids would ask me, 'How do you see?' — which is so hard for a 5-year-old to answer. 'My classmates would ask me why my eyes were closed, why I wasn't looking at them, and I didn't know how to explain it.' That's still a bit of a challenge for Wagner, even as an 18-year-old high school graduate. But she's dedicated to doing the best she can to help people understand. Wagner was born with cone-rod dystrophy, a genetic disorder that effects about one in every 30,000 people. The condition renders her color blind — she sees in only black, white and gray — makes her eyes sensitive to light and makes her struggle with depth perception. Without her glasses, she has 20/400 eyesight. 'That means what you should be able to see at 400 feet I can only see at 20 feet,' she explained. It would be reasonable to think the disorder would be an impediment for Wagner, a hurdle slowing her from achieving her dreams. But that's never been the case. 'My parents raised me to believe that if I want something to not let anything stand in my way,' she said. Wagner took that lesson to heart. Instead of struggling, she has thrived. She became an academic dynamo and recently graduated from Muhlenberg High School as valedictorian of her class. 'It's a big accomplishment because it showed all the work I put in was worth it,' she said of earning the honor. 'But it's not a defining moment. There's still so much to do.' That kind of mindset is what led Wagner to excel during her time at Muhlenberg. So did being creative and willing to adapt. She found ways to lessen the impact of her blindness, like using digital textbooks, a closed circuit television system, Braille, a special computer and large-print text books. 'My text books were absolutely giant,' she said with a laugh. In high school, she was able to use her cellphone in class, taking photos of what her teachers wrote on the board and blowing it up to a larger size that she could see. Wagner was drawn to math, science and engineering, saying she was always good with her hands and enjoyed solving problems. That led her to pursue a research project — one she would end up presenting at science fairs — aimed at finding viable alternatives for fossil fuels. Wagner said she was often overlooked when she shared her projects at science fairs, with some people questioning her abilities because of her blindness and being a woman in the traditionally male-dominated world of science and engineering. 'There are always negative people,' she said. 'There's always going to be people who don't think you can do something or don't believe in you, it comes from a lack of understanding.' Wagner said she is dedicated to overcoming that naivety and showing everyone that a visual impairment doesn't have to be a constraint. 'When you're born visually impaired you have to be very creative, you have to learn to adapt to your surroundings to be able to do everything that everyone else is doing,' she said. 'No one knows you better than yourself, no one knows your limits but yourself. I don't like to set limits at all because then there's a threshold for success.' Wagner will continue seeking success this fall at Cornell University. She has received a $10,000 scholarship from Lighthouse Guild in New York City to help cover the costs. She will study environmental engineering and perhaps minor in chemical engineering at Cornell. She said she plans to eventually seek a PhD in sustainable energy, work in research and teach. 'My goal is to pave a path in the STEM fields for anybody with a disability, and women as well,' she said. 'I've not always felt the field is inclusive, and I don't want other people to feel that way. 'I want people to know that they can do it. Just be creative and keep trying and eventually you'll prove people wrong.'
