The Great Spasm Struggle As I’m sure many of you reading will attest – spasms are one of, if not the most, infuriating side effect of spinal cord injury. Beginning the very moment I wake up and roll onto my back, these unannounced muscle tremors stay with me throughout the day. They predominantly present themselves in my …
A Millennial Milestone November, 2022. The unthinkable happened. I turned 40. After counting down from months, to weeks, to days, it finally arrived. I’m not really sure what dramatic and irreparable change I expected to occur on the morning in question; perhaps a sudden, drastic aging, akin to Tim Allen in The Santa Clause?! The truth …
New Year, New Injury, New Questions As we all enter a brand new year, my 17th on wheels, I wanted to pose a question to my fellow “person’s of varying disabilities”, something that’s been on my mind more and more recently: How have you dealt, or how do you plan to deal, with an eventual …
Sittin’ On The Deck Of The Bay Windows After what felt like the longest winter imaginable here in the UK, with my hoodie ‘n’ heating combo lasting until the end of May; this past month has finally seen the rain let up and temperatures break into the tumultuous teens! With so long spent indoors over …
Active Hands and Therabands – How To Work Out With The Sun Out! Read More »
The Christmas preparation can be a bit overwhelming when you are a quad with reduced hand function – here are some tips to help!
The New Norm…? In my previous blog entry from April, which feels like a solid decade ago at this point, I confidently mused that by the time I got round to writing my next entry, all this Coronavirus nonsense would be “firmly in the rearview mirror”… …oh to be young and naive again! Yes, I now find …
It seems positively ironic that in my previous entry I’d spoken about how uncomfortable I felt accepting help off strangers, and now it’s illegal to be within 2 metres of any of them… The moral of the story is be careful what you wish for!!
My name is Gareth and I am terrible at asking for help from strangers. I haven’t always been this way however, this little aversion being a definite mental side effect of my injury. I’m not sure what exactly it’s rooted in…
Bedbaths & Beyond So here we are: 2019 and 14 years down the spinal cord injury line. Where does the time go?! It feels like only yesterday when I was lying helplessly in my bed in HDU, being rolled from side to side as the nurses bed bathed me and I wondered to myself why …
Well we made it, the final Monday of disability employment awareness month. And if you weren’t aware of it beforehand, after five blog entries of me prattling on about it, you sure as s*** must be by now! We’ve heard from several different people, offering varying different opinions and perspectives on not only looking for …
The Disability Unemployability Conspiracy (Part 5) Read More »
So here we are, nuzzled comfortably into the ample bosom of the 4th week of disability awareness month. This week I talk to Shaun who, after three and a half decades in a wheelchair, knows all the ins and outs of life after spinal injury, including the ups and downs of seeking employment. This is …
The Disability Unemployability Conspiracy (Part 4) Read More »
Hello and welcome back! In our 3rd week of disability employment awareness month, I talk to Jamie, a young man whose enthusiasm for getting back to the career he loved quickly became a nightmare, which saw him fighting numerous battles everyday just to keep his job. This is his story… Jamie Year of injury & …
The Disability Unemployability Conspiracy (Part 3) Read More »
So, we’re now in the 2nd week of disability employment awareness month and this week I’m focusing on Peter who, as I said at the end of last week’s entry, has struggled to find employment since his injury and thinks it is far harder for people with disabilities to find employment than those without. This …
The Disability Unemployability Conspiracy (Part 2) Read More »
Well, we’ve made it to October; famous for pumpkins, witches, trick or treat, and also for being…national disability employment awareness month? Yes, in case you didn’t know (and I certainly didn’t until very recently), October in the UK is the official month dedicated to disability employment awareness, that celebrated time of the year that I’m …
The Disability Unemployability Conspiracy (Part 1) Read More »
Vital Statistics 2 (February 26th – 12 Days In) Weight: 8st 12lbs (56.25kg)Stomach Circumference: 36.5″ (92.7cm) General Feelings: If I have learnt one thing in the last 12 days, it is that sugar is apparently in everything! A routine trip to the supermarket on February 14th (I’m an old romantic I know) turned into an …
