Out Of Orbit – My Charity Nystagmus Abseil!

We did it! 🙂 On Sunday 21 October, after a month’s delay due to the typical British weather, I finally got to do my charity abseil down the ArcelorMittal Orbit Tower in aid of nystagmus research. That’s a drop of 80 metres (262 feet) from the UK’s tallest sculpture!

It was my first ever fundraising challenge and my first ever abseil, and therefore a big deal for a beginner like me. And it was an amazing experience, which I’m excited to tell you about in this post. I’ve also made a video that includes headcam footage from my descent, so do check that out as well.

Donations closed on 23 March 2019, and I raised £920 (+ £143 Gift Aid)! Thank you all SO much! Everyone who donated prior to the initial publication of this post is listed at the end, and are also in the credits of my video (unless you were anonymous of course). But if you’d like to donate even though the deadline has passed, please feel free to donate to Nystagmus Network and/or Moorfields Eye Charity directly. Thanks!

So I hope you enjoy reading about my abseil adventure, including my fundraising achievements and what happened on the day itself! Thanks again for your support!

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Blogger Interview – Chelsey (VI Blind Resources)

Last month I was very kindly featured on the blog VI Blind Resources, after Chelsey interviewed me about being raised by visually impaired parents. It’s not something I’ve really written about here on my blog, so do go and give it a read to find out a bit more about me.

In exchange for that, I’m delighted to feature an interview with Chelsey here on my blog. She regularly posts on her blog and YouTube channel and across social media, and she even makes the effort to provide written descriptions for images and audio descriptions in her videos. So do go and check her out, and I hope you enjoy this little interview with her. Thank you to Chelsey for featuring me and answering my questions!

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August 2018 Favourites

It’s now time to do my August Favourites post and video, to bring myself up to date before I get into an eventful September. August was again busy on the social media front, and there was important stuff going on at home too. But I also had time to go out and do a nice variety of things as well. So it was another productive and enjoyable month, and I hope you enjoy reading about it.

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Blogger Interview – Amanda Gene

This is a new type of post for me – an interview exchange with another blogger! Amanda Gene came to me with the idea, having interviewed some other bloggers already, and I was of course very flattered and happy to take part! Amanda has already published her interview with me, so do go and check that out too.

I’d love to do more posts like this too. I think it’s a really nice way to learn about other people, for the same reason that tag posts are so enjoyable. Plus it’s very important to support and promote each other in the blogging community, especially as disabled bloggers get overlooked somewhat (which is why I’ve created lists of bloggers who post about sight loss, disability, London & entertainment). So if anybody wants to do an exchange of Q&As like this, feel free to contact me.

Anyway, here is the interview I did with Amanda. I hope you enjoy it. Do give her a follow if you can, all of her social links are at the end of the post. Thank you so much to Amanda for featuring me on her blog and for answering my questions here as well! She gives great advice on blogging and interacting with disabled people, and it’s really interesting to get an insight into her disability and the things she enjoys.

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July 2018 Favourites

Time for another monthly favourites post and video, looking back at July. Things were very busy and successful on the blog and social media this month, I enjoyed some fun social events, museum visits and other entertainment, and I even got a bit sporty for once, all while enjoying the sweltering heatwave. So it was a pretty good month, and I hope you enjoy my review of it.

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The Sunshine Blogger Award

I enjoy doing Q&A tag posts, whether they’re disability related or on other topics, as they’re a nice way to connect with other bloggers so we can get to know each other better, and it’s also lovely to be invited to participate in them.

And this time around, appropriately for summer, I’ve been very kindly nominated for the Sunshine Blogger Award. This award is given by bloggers to other bloggers, to recognise and celebrate the creativity, positivity and inspiration in their work. And the rules are simple:

  1. List the rules and display The Sunshine Blogger Award badge in your post.
  2. Thank the blogger who nominated you and link back to their blog.
  3. Answer the 10 questions that the person who nominated you asked you.
  4. Nominate up to 12 other bloggers to receive the award and ask them 10 new questions.

So to be nominated just once by anybody is a great honour. But over the last few weeks I’ve been nominated THREE times, which is extremely flattering! So thank you very much indeed to Holly (Life of a Blind Girl), Luke Sam Sowden & Carol (The Invisible Vision Project), it’s very generous of you all to nominate me! They’ve all asked completely different questions too, which is wonderful. So I hope you enjoy reading my answers to them all.

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June 2018 Favourites

Time for another monthly favourites post and video, this time looking back over June. It was a significant month on social media for a few reasons, plus I also got to see 2 theatre shows, went out to a few museums and did a few walking tours in the nice weather. So there’s plenty to mention.

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Disabled Blogger Tag

This Q&A tag is a wonderful creation by Elin at My Blurred World who recognised that, in amongst all of the many blogger tags out there, disabled bloggers didn’t have a tag for themselves. I’m one of the people she nominated to do it, and I’ve also been nominated by The Invisible Vision Project, Amanda Gene and Life Of A Blind Girl, so thank you to all of you! 🙂

So here are my answers, as a post and a video. I hope you enjoy it and find it interesting!

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February 2018 Favourites

Well, what a way to start a new month, with snow all over the place! Winter has seemed very reluctant to let Spring take over, but hopefully things will warm up in the coming weeks now.

And the cold weather didn’t stopped February from being an eventful month. Following on from my January 2018 Favourites, it’s now time to look through what I’ve been enjoying in February. And even though it’s the shortest month, I seem to have packed quite a bit in! So I hope you enjoy this post and video for February.

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Rare Disease Day Photo Challenge

Update (March 1st) – I won the challenge, much to my surprise! Thank you so much to Rare Disease UK! It was great fun being involved, because I loved the theme of the campaign, and I really enjoyed seeing other people’s photos. So very well done to all involved. We can all be proud of our efforts to raise awareness during the month! 🙂

Happy Rare Disease Day! ðŸ™‚

Today is a wonderful international opportunity to raise awareness of rare diseases, conditions, disabilities, etc, to educate people and highlight the need for greater funding and research. Here in the UK, it’s led by Rare Disease UK. But there are events taking place worldwide, so there will be related organisations in many countries.

1 in 17 people have a rare disease, meaning it’s a lot more common than you might think. So even if you don’t have one yourself, chances are you know somebody who does. And if you do have a rare condition, you’re certainly not alone.

There are over 6,000 rare diseases, affecting over 300 million people worldwide (including 30 million in Europe). That’s a huge number! So this is a day for all of us unusual rarities to get together, along with anyone and everyone who supports us and the cause in any way.

This year, the theme is “Show your rare, show you care”, and everyone can get involved, regardless of whether or they you have a rare disease. So that includes patients, families, carers, medical professionals, policy makers and members of the public.

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