I think it’s fair to say that, as someone with OI, when you reach the ripe old age of 43 you have experienced a hairy moment or two…almost like cats with nine lives!
Here’s my tale:
In 2016 whilst at work, a drink spilt onto the controller of my chair causing a battle to ensue between me and my desk. Unfortunately for me, there was only one winner as I managed to crush myself pretty bad. When I say pretty bad, it was five and a half weeks in critical care pretty bad and six and a half weeks altogether in hospital before I was released back into the wild.
I think everyone who has Brittle Bones can relate to this story and has one of their own. Sometimes we unintentionally live life a little on the edge with things that seem quite innocuous ending up becoming somewhat life threatening for us. Such as spilling a brew on the controller of your chair.
But equally, we want to get the most out of life and can’t be overly cautious all of the time. I believe it’s this balance (that we never get quite right) that is one of the main bonds which connects us all.
A passion for sport
So, a little bit about me. I’m a Brummie currently living in Bristol. I love my sport – any sport really – but particularly football and cricket. And I also love to travel.
So, if I can combine the two, like my brother and I did for the Euro 2024 tournament In Germany this summer, it’s a match made in heaven. You can read more about that here.
I’m also a big Everton fan and have travelled the length and breadth of the country watching them.
Yes, I know what you’re thinking…a Brummie, supporting Everton. I’ll add another curveball – I also live in Bristol. What?! How!? Why!? Well, I blame friends of the family growing up who used to bribe me with Everton merch and, well it worked. Although, I’m pretty sure Everton’s success in the mid-80s also played its part too😊.
I’m also a big Warwickshire County Cricket fan and have also been lucky enough to go and watch the England cricket team in a Boxing Day test match at the MCG in Melbourne, Australia.
Sport is a great way to escape and gives joyous experiences…and sometimes as a disabled attendee you get the best seat in the house.
The big move to Bristol
As mentioned above, I am currently living in Bristol and have done for 12 years now with the help of ‘live in’ support. It took an almighty effort to get any funding – the reason being – they still saw my parents as capable of caring for me, so couldn’t understand why I wanted to move out.
I feel like I could dedicate a whole article to this subject as it was so complicated and emotional to navigate. Emotional because the process was reliant on me, for the first time, having to highlight everything I couldn’t do as an individual. Whereas up to that point in life I’d only focused on what I could do.
Once I’d secured funding I bought a flat in the centre of the city and have since benefitted from ‘live in’ support – currently two support workers who operate on a five week / three week rota.
It’s a unique relationship we have with our support workers as I’m sure people will relate to. With experience I think you become more confident managing those relationships, but at first it was pretty overwhelming looking back, especially as I was living independently for the first time out of the family home.
Whilst I was a little like a rabbit in the headlights when I first arrived in Bristol, I was fortunate that a lot of my colleagues moved at the same time as me as part of our jobs relocating. I therefore had a really sound support network which was incredibly valuable.
My time at the Beeb
I work as a Production Management Assistant at the BBC. I have been with the BBC since 2006 and prior to that was at the National Exhibition Centre in Birmingham.
I worked for them at the Mailbox, Birmingham up until we moved to Bristol in 2012 and during the move they were really supportive. Realising that it was such a big move for me, they offered me the opportunity to try it for six months and, if independent living didn’t work out, I could still take redundancy which was on offer for those that didn’t want to relocate.
As I didn’t go to University, those first 12 months in Bristol were like my Fresher’s Year – it was carnage. Then reality hit and I started having to watch the pennies before my liver gave up.
The programme I was working on at that time was Countryfile and that has been the brand I’ve worked on most during my time at the BBC.
First day arriving into the office, and having John Craven and Micheala Strachan sitting a few desks down from me, was something which turned me back into a 12 year old child…so starstruck, trying to play it cool but totally failing.
One of the advantages of working at a big organisation like the BBC is I’ve been able to work across different offices in different cities. This has allowed me to come to Bristol and work in the Natural History Unit and I also enabled me to go on attachment to Salford and work on the Women’s European Football Championships for Radio 5live Sport.
I hope this has given you a little taster of who I am, my love of sport, my journey to independent living & my professional career at the BBC.
I’ll hopefully be back later in the year with more!!
