Brooke engages in a candid conversation with Paul Swain, who acquired a disability later in life. Paul shares his experience of losing an arm and his unique perspective on accepting his disability.

Paul reflects on the societal acceptance of disability and the attention-seeking behaviour that some individuals exhibit, before delving into the challenges of adapting to life with a disability, from relearning everyday tasks to dealing with phantom pain. The conversation touches on the resilience and acceptance that comes with being disabled, as well as the societal curiosity and misconceptions surrounding disability.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

Paul struggles with accepting the loss of his arm, but has learned to embrace the honesty, instead of feeling forced to simply accept it.

Disability is definitely an individual thing, and each person must go through it and accept it in their own way

Paul feels that sometimes, people use their disability to curry favour or influence behaviour. 

Accepting our disability is something we have to come to on our own. We should not simply feel as though we have to be happy and proud about our circumstances because society expects us to

BEST MOMENTS

"I don't really particularly accept the loss of my arm... I always cover it up, it's always covered up." 

"I try not to let it play a part in my life and just carry on... but everybody relates to their disability incredibly individually."

"I think sometimes people believe that the acceptance of disability is so much better now than it ever was... I think there's also an element of people believe they should say that they accept disability and so that's what they do." 

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!