NEW START - NEW ACADEMIC YEAR

Back to University next week.  Getting broke in gently as there is only the welcome back meeting on Tuesday for an hour, but there is a catch up with the Thinking Ahead group. This is the group I joined last year that raise funds and awareness for Student Minds, also the reason I shaved my head if you remember. The only thing am not looking forward to is breaking in a new support worker who will help me get around Uni. Hoping she is not set in her ways or used to patronizing disabled people or the next year will be explosive !

Then its back to nose to the grindstone the week after as we get into full swing with our second year on campus. Still plenty of other things to keep me busy as well such as marketing and selling the Halloween Masquerade Ball tickets for the 31st of October https://www.facebook.com/events/417935758373799/

On top of this there is the decorations to order and the itinerary to sort out of who is responsible for what on the night. All of this on top of still having to finish up my CBT diploma I started half way through the holidays and being invited down to Merseyside to be a director with another charity and help them with their fundraising. Add to this that I have also applied for press passes for The Amputee Diaries to various comic cons and events, including in the USA, means that am going to be a very busy girl !

I am hoping to do more reviews for people who have disability's as I strongly believe that being disabled should not stop you from living life to the full. More venues and events are now aware that these things need to cater to every one, but don't always see the world from our perspective. They may think they have covered every aspect of the event for disabled people when in fact they are missing things, sometimes little things, sometimes HUGE bloody things and that is where my reviews come in. Not only to help people but also planners and businesses to address these problems, be more inclusive and in fact increase their revenue stream, audience and fan base. In fact since losing my mobility pretty much, my health getting worse, nearly dying during childbirth with Toyah, my dad being diagnosed with dementia and my mam dying, I have came to realize that life is just too short to worry about what people think and waiting for the right time to do something. Hence cosplaying and all the trips to Disney.

We are still waiting for social services to arrange visiting my dad to assess him for help due to recently being diagnosed with dementia. Since the diagnoses we have pretty much been told that we will have to fight for every scrap of help we get. Typical. It is so frustrating being stuck in this chair sometimes, feeling useless, watching people you care about needing assistance and help and knowing that there is absolutely nothing you can do to help and feeling that  you are no use at all.

This got me thinking about being a parent and disabled/wheelchair user. The issues it brings I think are unique, something most people will never experience. The first thing you notice is how much you have to adapt certain things to make them work. The next is how much you actually relay on your children for help. Basic things such as house work, doing the washing, cooking sometimes getting clothes on or off depending on if you are having a flare up at the time. My mind though I can keep active which am thankful for. Hence the reason for the charity and uni I guess.

 I am no longer interested in possessing things, but in having experiences. The bigger the better. Life does not have to be over just because you have suffered a tragedy in your life. Nor does it have to be over because of your age, after all its just a number, just like your tragedy, disability it does not define who you are.
People often forget to stop and take in the beauty around them, see the fun in most all situations and live life every day as if it is your last. Take chances, have fun, don't be scared to make a fool of your self ( hell I do that all the time that I don't even need to practice it any more ). But then again it has taken numerous tragedy's in my life and 46 years on this planet for me to do these things. Its not something that comes naturally to us but needs to be learnt, just like every thing else. There is no book on this, you can read as many books around this subject as you like but it will never enable you to do these things or be this way. That, am afraid, is down to you and you alone. In fact I think the more gadgets and tech we invent to make our life easier just clutters it and makes it busier. In fact I think people or trying to use so much tech and gadgets these days to free up time that they have less time then they did before !

Sometimes I think it would be fun to write a book based on my life, the husband thinks I should. But honestly I don't think any one would buy it as it would seem so fantastical and unbelievable. The things I have been through, the things I have done and seen. Hell plot lines of soaps  or more believable then my life some times. This summer alone I have :
Started a charity
organised and event
got donations for prizes
received press passes for a film and comic con
interviewed Chris Judge aka Tel'q from Stargate

interviewed Gareth Lloyd Davis aka Yanto from Torchwood
interviewed Doug"Hacksaw" Duggan from the WWF
Spoke to Michael Bien from Terminator
Spoke to Robert Enguland from Nightmare on Elm Street
Traveled to Glasgow
Done a diploma in CBT
bought a new car
been in a local newspaper
soon to be speaking at the local college to new Psychology students starting the extended degree course
went to a VIP event
had business cards done
had a shopping trip away
applied to be a zombie
got involved as a possible director for another charity
reunited with my dad and sister........and that's in 4 months imagine what I have done over the last 46 years! Some highlights are - insulted Eric Clapton (in my defense it was an accident), lived in a hotel suite for a month, been put before Westlife, drank with Bobby Robson, did a screen test for Matthew Vaughn for the film Kingsman.........

See life is not over, its only over if you let it be.

People look at me and see an overweight, middle aged women who is in a wheelchair with no legs. If they only knew......:)

(If anything in this blog or the other blogs have effected you and you would like to talk to some one please feel free to get in touch.)