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Welcome to the Health Activist Writer’s Month Challenge brought together by WEGO Health – a social network for all health activists.  Again, I am participating in the annual Writer’s Month Challenge in which I will be writing about my health activism and health condition based upon given prompts.

Friday 3rd April 

We love random acts of kindness.  Write about a time that you benefitted from the kindness of a stranger, or a time when you were the one extending a helping hand.  How did you feel?

“Try to be a rainbow in someone’s cloud” – Maya Angelou

A random of kindness is  defined as a ‘selfless act performed by a person or people wishing either to assist or cheer up an individual person or a group of people’.

Think about how you would feel if you were to receive a random act of kindness by a stranger (or unknown person).  It can positively influence your entire day, right?  It certainly does, I know from personal experience that small acts of kindness that has been afforded to me makes a bad day just a little brighter.

Random acts of kindness does not even have to be big gestures – letters from a pen pal, a small gift from Mum or even a smile from a stranger are small tokens that can turn a day from being bad into a good day.

But perhaps being on the receiving end of a random act of kindness can often mean so much more when we are struggling and going through a particularly rough time due to chronic illness.

One personal anecdote of being on the receiving end of a random act of kindness only happened a few months ago.  As previously mentioned, the symptoms that I experience as a result of my neurological condition were particularly severe, and was struggling with even the basic of tasks.  I felt that I was so abnormally different to everyone else my age and frustrated over the limitations that my condition places on my life.

A couple of weeks passed by, and a mysterious package arrived on my doorstep (it was mysterious in the sense that I had not ordered anything).  Inside the said package, was a beautiful necklace of a snowflake with a message printed on a card, which read ‘Let this snowflake remind you how unique and wonderful you are’.

 

To this day, I still do not know who sent this beautiful necklace but I am extremely grateful to whoever did as this little gesture let a little sunshine into my life, when it was full of storm clouds.  Not only did this act of kindness brighten my day but it was also a wonderful reminder that is okay to be different, and it is our differences that make us special. Our uniqueness is what sets us apart and makes us the person we are.  In addition, it was lovely knowing that somebody thought of me enough to find the necklace and send it to me.  And of course, the person must have been particularly special for extending the kindness to me but also wanting to stay anonymous.

Isn’t that the most wonderful act of kindness?

And now I have joined a wonderful Facebook group to send letters and small gifts to others in a similar situation to myself who are struggling.  Paying the little random act of kindness forward to someone else in need.

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Welcome to the Health Activist Writer’s Month Challenge brought together by WEGO Health – a social network for all health activists.  Again, I am participating in the annual Writer’s Month Challenge in which I will be writing about my health activism and health condition based upon prompts given.

The first prompt reads as given:

Keep Calm and Carry On…Write and create your own “Keep Calm and Carry On” poster.  Try to make it about your own condition!  You can then go to (http://www.keepcalm-o-matic.co.uk/) and actually make an image to post to your blog.

 

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I have chosen this particular phrase for my own ‘Keep Calm’ poster as it reflects my life with my condition at this time in my life.  As regular readers of my blog will know that my condition, and a symptom known as spastic paraparesis causes severe stiffness and weakness in my legs; as a result, my legs will often give way and often without any notice.  In addition, the stiffness often causes a lot of pain (when I have feeling in them, that is!) and therefore unable to walk very far.  As these symptoms have been increasing in severity, I am therefore required to use a wheelchair when I am out for long periods of time, or somewhere which requires a lot of walking.

The dizziness, that I experience however, makes it feel very uncomfortable to use the wheelchair due to the motion upsetting my vision and causing severe dizziness and vertigo.  But, as my legs are often too weak and the pain and trembling make it considerably difficult to walk, then I need to disregard the dizziness, and use the wheelchair anyway.

In nearly four weeks, I am going on a cruise, and of course, part of the holiday is going on excursions to some of the cities that we are visiting.  In doing so, it requires a lot of walking and due to the severity of the symptoms, I am going to have to use the wheelchair no matter how bad the dizziness is – and therefore I will have to just ‘Keep Calm and Carry on Wheelin’!

Hey Everyone

Another day, and another new post for the WEGO Health Activist Writer’s Month Challenge. Okay, so today’s prompt says the following:

If you had a superpower – what would it be? How would you use it?

After some deliberating, and going through all the superhero’s that we all know – Superman, Spiderman, Batman, and so forth for some inspiration, I have decided that my superpower would be the ability to teletransport from place to place. At one point during the exercise, I was debating whether to go for flying – but seeing as I have a phobia of heights I decided against it! Heights is definitely one of my ‘Achille’s Heels’ in my life.

So why I have chosen my superpower to be teletransportation? Well for one, due to my condition – my weak legs, the dizziness, vertigo and the frequent visual disturbances I am unable to get out by myself. So, if I were to have the ability of teletransportation I would not have to rely on other people – especially my parents to take me to places where I want to go. To go somewhere to pass the time instead of spending it on the computer or watching daytime television – to go out when I want to instead of waiting for someone to take me.

Image: http://by-anca.blogspot.co.uk/2010/07/girls-and-just-another-girl.html

Another reason is due to the weakness in my legs, as I have regularly stated in the blog am unable to stand for very long before my legs collapse from under me – teletransportation would take the problem away of having to queue for public transport (which I am unable to do) – maybe I would even able to teletransport a chair with me so I would be able to sit down before a fall occurs – although my legs often give way without any warning!

I will be able to go to places that I have always dreamed of and go to America and Canada to meet dear friends that I have made in the fantastic support groups that I have found. Friends that have given me so much support, understanding and friendship during these last few months and at times when things have been bad. Through teletransportation I would be able to achieve that dream and without the need of going to an airport – with high ceilings and fluorescent lights which leave me feeling incredibly dizzy and can bring on the attacks of vertigo and visual disturbances that I experience.

And how I would use this superpower? Well I would use it to ease the burden that I often feel that I am on my parents? A superpower like this would mean that I could be less reliant on my Mum and Dad – I could take myself out instead of having someone else take me… A power that would just simply make life easier for me and give me a better quality of life…

So, what would your superpower be, and how would you use it? Again please comment below on your thoughts, suggestions, etc…

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