I'm so very excited to share that this year I'm going to be doing Able2B's Discover Your Ability event on Sun 28th June!

Over the past couple of months I've been working really hard with the team on my mobility and balance so my challenge for this event is to walk around the majority of the course (not using my walking stick) and then - fingers crossed! - run the final section! This is a huge deal for me as I loved running before my accident and it was heartbreaking to accept that this was no longer advisable with my conditions. However, after being passed from pillar to post for the past 7 years and being labelled a "too complex a case", being told "nothing more can be done" and I've "reached [my] limit", I'm finally seeing some improvement!!! I've been getting a lot of compliments for my walking this year and the Able2B team now think we should try giving jogging/running a go!! Amazing right?! This is an incredibly exciting chapter and although I'm not quite sure where they're getting their confidence from, if they believe it then I guess we should try it.

Please consider sponsoring me for this event to help raise vital funds for Able2B. They truly do life-changing work with their clients (check out their YouTube page, talk about inspirational!) Able2B are planning an expansion later this year to create the largest indoor, adapted swimming centre in the UK with 3 different hydrotherapy pools. There is no other disability centre like this in the UK so the new SwimSpa, combined with changes to their existing gym and outside space, will allow them to help so many more people and give hope to so many. I myself was inspired to join Able2B by watching previous clients completing the DYA event and I hope that I might be able to inspire at least one person out there not to take no for an answer and to keep believing and advocating for themselves.

------ MY ABLE2B STORY ------

In December 2018, I was a pedestrian walking home from work when I struck by a speeding motorcycle. Suffering multiple fractures to my pelvis, sacrum, clavicle and jaw, plus a mild traumatic brain injury, delirium and multiple other injuries to boot, life as I knew it shattered in an instant and overnight, everything changed. Following multiple surgeries and hospital stays, it has been a long and painful road learning to walk again and trying regain my independence, but the accident sadly left me disabled with life changing conditions including chronic pain and PPPD/vestibular migraines.

Early last year I had hit rock bottom with my recovery journey in so many ways; I had lost the career that I loved, lost my darling little London flat, lost my confidence & self-worth, and I had seen little to no progress with conditions in many years. It felt like my future had gone up in smoke. During a particularly dark moment, my mum asked me what specifically were some of these future goals and I said that I wished I could have had the opportunity to work with the Able2B team.

I'd been following them online for a year and I'd seen the incredible difference they had made in their clients' lives. They worked with a number of complex patients across a wide spectrum of disabilities, injuries and conditions and I had been so inspired by their incredible success rate. I had reached out previously to see what could be done whilst I was living in London and I enjoyed participating in their virtual classes sporadically - but I struggled to commit from afar with my vestibular issues and I yearned for more. With their adapted gym, the onsite hydrotherapy pool, their community events and their amazing combination of medical and sports expertise, I secretly hoped that if I could just work with them in person and take full advantage of their services, just maybe they could work their miracle one more time to help improve my quality of life.

So in that moment, when all hope felt lost, my mum suggested that we go for it... Now to be clear, it seemed a ridiculous suggestion! I knew no-one in Norfolk, I had no job, little money, no plan - just a tiny little flicker of hope buried deep inside that maybe I didn't have to accept my fate. But we talked and we talked and before you knew it, we were on our way for an in-person assessment. Shortly after, in what was undoubtedly one of the biggest gambles I've ever taken, I uprooted my life and relocated to Norwich to start a full programme at Able2B - and boy is that one of the best things I've done!