A good life (honestly!) with Multiple Sclerosis…

I work (for now), I love, I live, I have fun. Just with wheelchairs and drugs and spasms and stuff...

6 September 2022

In a bedroom setting, two of my fave carers - both female - are masked and uniformed up. They are faking a mean / arms crossed pose.

Accepting Change with a Progressive Disease

Multiple Sclerosis in a downward, unpredictable spiral isn’t pretty. But then neither am I. And I guess I just have to live with both those facts. Hey ho. MS isn’t always progressive. But it often is. It doesn’t always progress fast. But it sometimes does. There’s very little you can do to predict your ongoing progress. No wonder that feeds into the anxiety that frequently comes hand in hand with actual symptoms. And right now I’m in the middle of a storm of change. Meh… Some posts inbound! Daily carer visits My latest significant ickiness to ‘give in’ to? Daily carer visits. Weekdays to put me to bed. Weekends to both haul me out of bed and then later […]

5 March 2022

A selection of five photos in a montage. All showing either my sister - a beautiful brunette - from babydom to her 40s - or that same sister plus me also brown haired and white, also from teeny to 40s ish. We’re always happy, we are always clearly loving each other

Dealing with grief in the saddest of times

It’s all about Ukraine isn’t it? Well this one is too. Kinda. Grief. Time to recognise nearly all of us are going through versions of grief right now: So many of us were already coming to terms with two surreal years. Thanks Pandemic. 😬. Lost loved ones. Lost freedoms. Lost businesses and careers. Lost opportunities. Lost contact. Lost health. Lost dreams. (Some of us in the vulnerable category are now grieving lost protections, but that’s a complaint for another day). And suddenly we are grieving – among many other emotions – for Ukraine. For democracy. For human beings. Those of us long in the tooth are sad we’re racing towards another Cold War. Putin fans are confused. And any dictator […]

15 January 2022

A man in red short-sleeved shirt and dodgy patchwork trousers is sitting outside in his wheelchair. He's in a lovely garden setting (mature trees in the background). He's clearly pretending to work (laptop, headphones) as he has a cheeky smile and a glass of booze

Sodding Multiple Sclerosis and Sodding Covid. My mental health in quiet isolation.

Ironically, whilst trying to write for months about mental health, I have been struggling with a mental block in putting pen to paper. Or finger to keyboard. Actually it’s been so long it should be quill to parchment. So long that the word ‘blog’ probably wasn’t invented and I should call this ‘ye olde chronicle update’. Awkward. I have faintly covered up my failures with virtual speaking engagements and a shiny series of new podcasts, https://www.prca.org.uk/Disability-at-the-Table . Available on all your favourite gramophones now, with a thrilling new episode out soon. So I can blame my workload on a good few distractions and my fave new invented phrase, ‘other nonsensing’. I’ve stayed tastily busy. Not to mention on telly a […]

9 November 2021

The Forgotten Minority

I’ve been rubbish at keeping up-to-date with my blog. About to rectify! In the meantime, a lovely opportunity to catch up with Sara Hawthorn. She doesn’t like me calling her a guru, but she’s fab. A social media friend for yonks, Sara runs an ongoing survey into disability representation in the PR industry. Few would deny that disabled people in PR are few and far between. But the stats that emerge point to stigma and reticence around ‘coming out’. Too grim a listen? Nah, Sara is fun and constructive. And bloody hell her Scottish accent may be charming. But a nightmare to edit for the written version. 😬 Sara is a Chartered PR practitioner who ran her own agency for […]