Monthly Archives: October 2020

Fundraising

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Hello, 

Some of you maybe aware that I am currently in the process of fund-raising for two amazing charities; The British Heart Foundation and The Children’s Heart Surgery Fund. I wanted to give you all an update on whats going on so far. 

I have been counting my daily steps and cycling on the exercise bike in the garage to build up my miles. First of all I did the distance from Bradford to Newcastle, we’re now doing Newcastle to Liverpool. From there we are going to do the distance to Bristol and from Bristol we are doing the distance down to Lands End. In total I am doing 660 miles. I aim to have this done by March 20th!!

https://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/fundraiser-display/showROFundraiserPage?userUrl=PhilippaBarraclough&pageUrl=1 

A red heart with stitching up the middle holding it together. There is a needle and thread sat underneath.

A heart stitched back together.

Some of you are probably thinking this post is a little different to my usual blog post about Disability and you are right, it is different. 

However, what I need to tell you all is that I was born with Congenital Heart Disease. Who knows, this might have been the cause of all my Disabilities. We will never know.

One of the reasons why this challenge is hard for me is my curved spine. I have Scoliosis. The top half of my spine curves outwards and almost touches my shoulder blade. It leaves me in pain and means I have to take tablets on a daily basis. Once a month I go for a sport massage to help my back muscles as they get quite tight and very uncomfortable. 

This challenge is something I am doing for my 30th Birthday. I want to give back to these charities. The Children’s Heart Surgery Fund was partly founded by one of the Surgeons who is responsible for saving my life. I want to raise awareness for this fabulous charity based in the Leeds General Infirmary. They offer support to families and their children as they go through the journey from diagnosis of a heart condition right the way through all of their follow up appointments. They are there to support staff to support their patients to make their stay in hospital as good as it can be. They provide a place to stay for parents who’s child is poorly. They offer emotional support. This charity is truly wonderful and does so much to help the patients at the LGI. 

I am supporting The British Heart Foundation because they are working to Beat Heartbreak Forever. They are funding research into areas such as Circulatory Disease and Vascular Dementia. Their 750 stores go along way to help sell your old items and maybe they could be where you pick up your next outfit? 

If you want to see Heart and Circulatory Disease in Context then click here. These numbers will show you why I am doing my bit to help raise money for the British Heart Foundation. 

I will be posting more about my fundraising as we go into the next few months. It might not be disability related directly, but as I mentioned previously my Disabilities could have been caused by my Congenital heart Disease. 

If you can spare £5 thats £2.50 to each charity you will be doing something wonderful. Thank you very much. 

https://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/fundraiser-display/showROFundraiserPage?userUrl=PhilippaBarraclough&pageUrl=1 

Dyspraxia

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Hello All, 

This week is Dyspraxia Awareness Week. When I started blogging, over ten years ago now, I started because I wanted to talk about Dyspraxia. Twitter allowed me to meet some people who were also Dyspraxic, which was brilliant. As time went on I started to blog more about Dyspraxia and Dyscalculia and then onto my visual impairment. 

For those of you who do not know Dyspraxia is a Developmental Co Ordination Disorder. It means I find movement and co ordination of movement very hard. I also find it difficult to co ordinate my thoughts so I can appear uncomfortable or not very confident. But I am. 

It took me until I was about nine years old to learn to ride a bike, I still struggle to tie my shoe laces. Buttons are a real difficulty. When shopping for clothes I have to make sure the buttons are doable. Doing everyday tasks when you have Dyspraxia is very hard. 

The best way I can describe it to you is this: imagine you’re just doing a normal thing, like making a list. 

Now say someone comes in and starts talking to you.

Then they start tapping you on the shoulder as well. 

Now someone else has come in and is also talking to you. 

They decide to start tapping away on the table. 

Then you get a phone call. 

Now one of those other two people has asked you to read them something. No reason. 

You have just remembered you are cold and want to put a jumper on so you start to do that. 

You’re on the phone, writing your list, trying to put your jumper on and those people are still talking and trying to get your attention while tapping away.  

It’s very hard to multitask. Being Dyspraxic is like multitasking all the time. You never get a break because everything takes so much effort and it is exhausting. 

Some things that can help those of us who are Dyspraxic are: 

Making a lists. 

Visual Reminders. 

Breaking information down into small chunks. 

Allow us extra time. 

When thinking about how you can help a person with Dyspraxia remember to be kind to them. Don’t over whelm them. When we get overwhelmed we become very stressed out. Help us to become better at organising our time. This can really make  difference to us. When we feel we are on top of things we are a lot more confident and can succeed. 

We may take a little longer at doing something, but thats OK because we have a very different mindset to everyone else. We are quite creative and you will see that is evident in our work. 

Don’t dismiss us because we appear to be all over the place. W jesuit struggle with organisation at times. But when we do get organised and sort out what needs doing and we plan. We are very efficient because we know what we’re doing when. 

Dyspraxia Awareness Week is every year 5-11th October. Celebrate our Differences and lets work to build a Dyspraxia Friendly World.