Raising awareness of, and supporting, young people with long-term health conditions
By Aisling O'Connell Hello hello! As this is my first post for The LUNA Project (scary but mostly exciting) I’ll begin with a little intro about myself. My name is Aisling, I’ve recently turned 21 and I grew up in Greater London. I’m about to enter my fourth and final year studying Politics and Economics … Continue reading Navigating Friendships with Epilepsy
This blog post features Beth, Laura, and Ally from LUNA talking together (on video call because of social distancing life!) about their experiences of being diagnosed with long term health conditions. They talk about how they found this, and the similarities and the differences in their experiences. What was your experience of getting a diagnosis? … Continue reading Diagnosis Experiences: A Conversation Between friends
I think that a year ago, if you had asked what I had lost and gained I would have struggled to think of what I had gained, and two years ago I would wonder why you were even asking. Now though, I feel able to think about the gains and see that they truly are … Continue reading Lost and Gained: Ally
When answering ‘what have I lost or gained because of disability?’ is difficult because I don’t have one. I have not had to deal with the struggles of diagnosis, hospital stays, and always putting my health before everything else – it hasn’t been central to my day-to-day life. I’ve never had to face the same … Continue reading Lost and Gained: Ross
Having a long term chronic illness can result in feeling like you are ‘ losing’ lots of things. Being diagnosed at a young age perhaps lessens these feelings; growing up you only pick the things which you are capable of. For instance, I never really have engaged in sport, apart from climbing from time to … Continue reading Lost and Gained: Beth
Hospital stays are a seemingly inevitable part of having a long term health condition, and can be difficult for lots of different reasons. There’s the isolation, stress, worry, missing out on things and the fact that you usually feel completely rubbish. We are writing this, Beth and Ally as both patients and visitors, and Ross … Continue reading Managing a Hospital Stay
The loneliness that came with epilepsy is one of the things that has taken me most by surprise and that I have found the hardest to manage. I feel we all know the difference between emotionally and physically alone, but it feels an important difference to emphasise. Especially because I would be doing an injustice … Continue reading In the Same Boat: Ally’s Perspective
Hi! I’m Mirren, I’m 19 years old and I’m a Gaelic student at the University of Glasgow. I suffer from seizures, usually a few times a day, and while my doctors believe they’re caused by epilepsy they are still not sure. It’s been a year and a half since I was first hospitalised, and back … Continue reading In the Same Boat: Mirren’s Perspective
Last weeks post touched upon just how big a problem accessibility is, and how isolating and demoralising it can be for individuals up against it, and how widespread a problem it is in a way you may never have noticed. This makes having friends who both support you with this and share the anger and … Continue reading Accessibility: Being Part of The Solution (2/2)
So, what is accessibility. The dictionary definition of accessibility is ... ‘The quality of being able to be reached or entered’ However, accessibility can often be defined by what ‘inaccessibility’ means. Inaccessibility means being unable to go out alone due to cobbles, kerbs with no drop downs and degrading pavement stones. Inaccessibility is saying that … Continue reading Accessibility: A conversation we need to have. (1/2)
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