The Power of Sharing your story – by Natasha Astill
Why is it important to share your story? How you can share your story safely?
I share my story safely by sharing as much information as I can without breaching my own confidentiality by being honest and real about situations.
It is important because you never know what someone else is experiencing. As not all disabilities are visible.
Sharing your stories makes others feel less alone and it makes those who are sharing confident within themselves it is also empowering.
Some tips I would recommend are:
A LESSON FROM NATURE – by Bill Fuller
I am a person who suffers from high anxiety and my anxiety levels are never higher than when I am driving, or at least they use to be (just ask my long suffering wife!)
Making Change for the Disability Community from the Bottom Up – by Anja Christoffersen
I have lived with a disability, diagnosed during my mother’s pregnancy, my entire life. Yet, like many who have a disability, the ‘label’ didn’t resonate with me for a long time. People may assume that it was simply because I don’t look disabled.
Finding a New Norm Living with Disability – by Natasha Price
Probably one of the hardest things about acquiring a disability is the loss of self.
Everything that has been your reality until that point, suddenly becomes foreign. Becomes difficult. Maybe even impossible.
And very few people truly understand how it feels to lose their identity, their independence and their autonomy. In this situation, you have two choices.
You can simply allow the situation to control you.
Or, you can take control and learn a new norm.
Easier said than done though, right?
The Road to Paris 2024 - Part 2 - by Susan Seipel
This post follows on from my previous post called ‘The Road to Paris 2024’ (published 30th July 2023), which you can find here: https://www.invacare.com.au/support/news/road-paris-2024-susan-seipel
Celebrating a Decade of Disability - By Charlie Park
Ten years ago, I woke up in the hospital feeling hopeful and grateful. I’d survived 18 months of dying from a rare auto-immune disease that my GP had missed. I’d survived thanks to my keen eye for detail, my willingness to speak up to my GP, and the availability of medications to keep me alive. I knew that I’d dodged a bullet. I wanted to do the most I could with whatever health I had left.
Our Working career… what does it look like and how does it change? – by Lindsay Nott
Before my injury, I had a job lined up (my first full-time job) in the trade industry. That all changed when I had my accident. After my rehabilitation, I kept busy volunteering as a peer supporter and being a guest lecturer at a university. However, having a career was still an important goal of mine so I started looking at options for study.
I completed a call centre course through TAFE who were accommodating and supportive and then my employment case manager found a job opportunity for me in office administration.
My exciting news! – by Alicia Kapa
Big news…. I’m engaged! Did anyone expect that coming? No? Good because neither did I to be honest! My best friend and I have been friends for 8 years, he is from Fiji and I am obviously from New Zealand. We met on Facebook, started talking, a year and a half later I went over to meet him and the rest is history. We did trips there or here every 6-8 months until he moved here in 2020!
DISABILITY DISCOUNTS – by Bill Fuller
Ask 100 disabled people to tell you about disability and you’re likely to get 100 different answers. But one factor of disability that everyone would agree with is that having a disability is very expensive. Nearly anything that is said to be for assistance with a disability can cost an astonishing amount and this is justified by some as being a “medical” need. One of many examples that I witnessed on an auction site was a bottle holder for a pram priced at $7. The very same bottle holder advertised for use on a wheelchair was priced at $94.
Journey to a Wheelchair Part 4 – Midsumma – by Ferris Knight
It’d been a while since I last did a wheelchair trial. There were so many moving cogs in my life that while this was always on the register, everything seemed to be the main priority: housing, school, ramps, surgeries. Everything was so important and dominant that it was like colliding atoms, ricocheting off each other and nothing was going to plan. While I was struggling to get on top of everything, I was blessed to have a team who kept fighting for me when conflicting demands too preoccupied me. And I must say that I was and am blessed to have a supportive team.