Brooke talks to Pippa, a guest with ME, about her journey so far, including the challenges of managing symptoms like fatigue and chronic pain. She highlights the importance of trusting one's intuition and seeking answers when dealing with a chronic illness.

The conversation also delves into the impact of Pippa's diagnosis on her life, from being a dancer to transitioning to a writer. Pippa also touches on the unsolicited advice and bizarre questions she receives in public about her disability, emphasising the need for understanding and respect. 

KEY TAKEAWAYS

Despite challenges, Pippa expresses gratitude for her abilities and newfound ambition, driven by her chronic illness experience.

We often receive unsolicited advice and questions about our disabilities, emphasising the need for better understanding and respect.

Through blogging and writing a book, Pippa finds a platform to share her experiences and advocate for those with chronic illnesses.

There is a level of absurdity of ableism in society, which requires listening and understanding rather than offering unsolicited advice.

BEST MOMENTS

"I tailor my answer depending on who's asking a lot of the time, but in a nutshell I say I have a chronic illness called ME." 

"I think the fact that people see a younger wheelchair user, and I'm also aware that I look a lot younger than I actually am, I think people have this desire to help but don't realise that their interpretation of helping just makes things so much worse."

"I'm more ambitious now, even though I have so much less usable energy per day, I feel as though I've got a stronger desire to do what I can and figure out what I can do with that level of ambition." 

"I do think it's important not to do things purely for other people because I've fallen into that trap in the past but if you're able to do something that fulfils you on a personal level but It also provides support or entertainment or just something of substance for other people."

VALUABLE RESOURCES

https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/disabled-and-proud/id1621152878

HOST BIO

Disabled and Proud is the show that brings listeners a different perspective on disability. Each week this podcast highlights an awesome disabled guest speaking about their own disability; why they are proud to be disabled and why they are proud to be themselves. 

The conversations in this show will look at what challenges these amazing people face socially, mentally, physically and life in general. This show is raw, open, honest, funny, welcoming and educational. 

Disabled & Proud does exactly what it says on the tin! And whilst we are creating this space for disabled people to be unashamedly themselves, without the need to conform to society, this is also not about toxic positivity. This show will be shining a big, bright light on disability without it being “Paralympic or pity”. 

As you will hear disability is WHOLE, COMPLETE & PERFECT and whilst the topic of disability can be quite heavy - and we definitely don't shy away from the bad days - this podcast is also about having fun too! Our aim is to play a part in reclaiming the word disability - turning it from inadequacy to perfection!