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!
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! 🙂
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Happy Rare Disease Day! 🙂
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.
After a very eventful and successful 2017, I’ve been looking forward to seeing what 2018 would bring. And for this first month of the year I’ve been mostly doing things indoors, given the cold weather outside.
So I’ve been going out to various museums, and have also been to the theatre, while at home I’ve been watching a couple of the DVD sets I bought last year. I’m also making an effort to start listening to more audiobooks this year, as I only did one in 2017, which was bad of me – although, to be fair, book-reading wasn’t top of my to-do list having just moved to a huge city!
So I’ve been keeping myself entertained in various ways, and I hope you enjoy this recap, for which I’ve also produced a video as well.
Happy New Year everybody! I hope you all had a lovely Christmas, and that 2018 is a joyful and prosperous year for you. 🙂
This Christmas marked my first anniversary of moving to London. It’s hard to believe it’s been that long already. And 2017 has been an amazing year! Although I was already used to getting around the city from my previous visits, it was still a leap into the unknown in many respects to actually live here. I had no idea how well it would work out, how safe or comfortable I would feel, how accessible events and attractions would be, and how easy it would be to make friends.
But it’s been more than worth the effort, and I’m extremely happy with how well it’s gone, given all the friends I’ve made, places I’ve explored, new things I’ve tried, and the opportunities I’ve taken up. A year ago I never imagined that I would be doing many of the things that have transpired in the months since.
I’m also pleased that my blog, Youtube, Instagram, Facebook and Twitter pages have had a steady increase in followers over the year. Sure, I don’t have big numbers compared to the bigger bloggers out there, but relative to where I was a year ago it’s been a substantial leap. And my goals for this haven’t been about the numbers anyway. Making connections, sharing my experiences and spreading a bit of awareness was always my aim, and I’ve been achieving that. It’s resulted in numerous opportunities and new experiences, including guest posts, a public speech (with another planned for next year), participating in a research study (which is continuing next year), being interviewed by a journalist, and more. My efforts have been paying off more than I could ever have imagined, and I’m loving it.
But above all, thank you so much to everyone I’ve met and interacted with during the year, whether it be in person or online. By reading, liking and sharing my content, leaving comments, asking questions, sending me private messages and emails, giving me opportunities for guest posts and public talks, and even meeting up in person, you’ve helped to make this year a very special one for me. Especially Aniridia Network UK, Nystagmus Network, London Vision, Thinking Bob, VocalEyes, RNIB, Scope, Fashioneyesta, Life Of A Blind Girl, My Blurred World, Luke Sam Sowden & All The Stations, but also everyone else that I’ve had any kind of contact with during the year.
Everyone has been very positive and supportive, and your involvement has enabled me to start this new chapter in my life with confidence and comfort, and fun and friendship. And for that I’ll always be very grateful. 2017 will forever be one of the most significant and happy of my life, nothing will take that away.
And I’ve had a lovely Christmas to finish it off in style, so I wanted to bring you up to date with how it went and the various things I enjoyed. This is quite an epic post as a result, and I’ve also filmed a video that mentions some of the stuff here along with my general reflections on 2017 as a whole. So I hope you enjoy!
As if nominating me for the Liebster Award wasn’t generous enough, Holly from Life Of A Blind Girl has also nominated me for the Blogger Recognition Award twice this year, in January and October, which is very kind indeed, thank you Holly! Do go and check out Holly’s blog, as she publishes lots of great posts about visual impairment, disability awareness and her hobbies and interests.
The Blogger Recognition Award simply requires you to write a bit about your blog and give advice to new bloggers, and then nominate other bloggers to do the same, to share the love and give them some exposure and recognition. So that’s what I’m going to do here. Thanks again to Holly for nominating me!
Continue reading “Blogger Recognition Award”I’ve shared overviews of this story as guest posts on Scope’s community forum and the Nystagmus Network’s newsletter. Many thanks to them both for featuring me! And if you’ve found me via one of those articles or a social media promotion, hello and welcome! 🙂
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On September 30th, I gave a talk at the Nystagmus Network’s Open Day about how I had been building a new social network for myself in London. It was my first time giving a public speech about myself, but it went really well. I spoke for about 15 minutes, then we had a group discussion for the next 15 minutes. It got a very positive response, and I got chatting to many people as a result of it, so I was very happy with it. And I’ve written blog posts about how I prepared for it and my experience at the Open Day.
So this post is a written version of that speech, and I’ve posted a video version that I filmed on the same evening. Both are longer than the actual speech I gave at the Open Day, as without constraints on time or length I’ve been able to explain things in a bit more detail. So the actual speech was a slightly more concise version of this, although 15 minutes was still quite a bit of time to fill!
Obviously my situation is unique to me, and everyone’s circumstances will be different in their own way. I’m just giving examples of the things I’ve done. The overall aim is to show that it’s important and worthwhile to try things that interest you and grasp opportunities when they arise, as you never know what will result from them. You may have to push yourself out of your comfort zone a bit, and I know that can be easier said than done. It was a challenge for me, and it still can be sometimes. But the more you try things, the more confident you’ll get, and you’ll soon start to reap the rewards of your efforts. Otherwise, you’ll always be asking yourself ‘what if’, which is never helpful.
So I hope you enjoy reading this. Thank you to Sue Ricketts and the Nystagmus Network for asking me to share my story at the Open Day, and to all those who responded to it so well.
Continue reading “Building My New Social Network With A Visual Impairment”Welcome back to my latest journal posts. There wasn’t anything worth writing about in September, but recent weeks have been pretty eventful.
Down in Devon I’ve been to a stand-up comedy show with some work colleagues, and there are updates on our house sale too. I’ve also paid another visit to our new place in London, where my Aunt gave me a little tour of the local area, I went to the Sight Village exhibition and an aniridia meetup, I oversaw the installation of a broadband line for homeworking, and I made contact with a fellow blogger I’ve been following for a while. So I hope you enjoy it all!
Continue reading “Journal – October-November 2016 (London Visit)”Welcome back to another set of journal entries. Things were pretty quiet between February and April, hence I’ve waited until now to do an update. So there’s plenty to mention here, including good news about our planned house move, my first proper attempts at blogging, some notes about the elections and EU referendum, and more. I hope you enjoy!
Continue reading “Journal – May-June 2016”This month has seen a big event that I’ve been looking forward to for a while – my best mate’s wedding in Guernsey, where I was one of two best men with his cousin. It was a wonderful occasion in a beautiful location, and it’s the first time I’ve given a public speech as well. So this post is mainly about that, but I also met another friend the week before, I’ve posted my first ever vlog on Youtube, and there have been one or two things to mention from home too.
So I hope you enjoy going through everything here, including some of the photos and video footage that I was able to capture on my new iPhone 6, and a few other photos that people took of me.
Continue reading “Journal – September 2015 (Guernsey Best Man)”It’s time for another bunch of entries from my journal. This month we’ve had a lot of building work done on the ground floor of our home, and I met up with my friend in Exeter. Plus I bought some more DVDs and music as usual, and there are some news stories that have caught my eye, among other bits and pieces. So I hope you enjoy!
Continue reading “Journal – October 2006”
Well Eye Never 