When I was 15, I lost half of my hearing overnight. With the help of the fantastic National Health Service and a nasty course of steroids, I have regained some hearing, but I only have around 70% in one ear and 30% in the other – which in all honesty is pretty useless.
To add to this, I have a long list of ailments, I also suffer with chronic pain, anxiety disorder, hypermobility syndrome and I have ME/CFS, which altogether can be very hard to manage.
It took me many years to come to terms with being disabled, but now I am proud of it as it shows how much I have overcome throughout the years.
In 2016, I went on maternity leave to have my beautiful twin daughters. I had to take an extended break due to personal circumstances so, while it was not many years, I still had to face coming back to work as a ‘returner’.
Having worked in publishing since graduating in 2009, I now work in the world of PR within financial services. While I do not have the same platform to be able to talk about diversity as I had when I was a journalist, I will still talk anyone’s ear off when it comes to diversity and inclusion.
For me, we need to talk more about inclusion – and it not being just having a token woman on a board. I believe there needs to be more across ability, race, gender, age, and sexual orientation. It means so much to me to be an ambassador for the Diversity Project. I hope to one day be a mentor to other disabled people within the industry.
I live in Essex with my wonderful husband and twin daughters, who keep me very busy when I’m not working.