4 Year Celebration of being disabled
Why am I celebrating my 4th year of being disabled as on 21st April 2022 (Easter Sunday) I had been rushed to hospital as I could not walk, as I lost all power in my legs and down the left hand side of my body. It looked like a stroke of some kind. With a multitude of tests CT scans and general ask me millions of questions. I was admitted to Kings College hospital as I could not walk, and they needed an MRI scan the next day.
As I laid there in rescuss for most of the morning from 8.30 to 12 this feeling was surreal, I knew I was being admitted about an hour in to the time in rescuss. Its just like the documentaries you see on TV. Loads of nurses, doctors, heath care assistants, consultants all waiting for me to come in as I was taken to hospital on blue lights.
So in summary, I could not walk for 4 days, then it was very wobbly for 8 month after as I had to relearn how to walk and interact with everything, I had mental health sessions, numerous chats with doctors and eventually 6 months later a neurologist. It was this consultant , who put it into focus, he said its FND, Functional Neurological Disorder, sorry there is no cure, you have to manage the symptoms. I knew this as I had done my research on this, as the hospital told me what it was.
However that was the turning point that evening, as I said there are so many things I used to do, now I cannot, so what can I do? The list was short in some columns and long in others and for what ever reason disabled sports photography came up as what was out there was old outdated and did not do justice for any sport. Now the world cup was playing at this time, and all the “other sports closed down early because of this. I found a 1 day seminar called “access to sports” They had a free lunch and it was at that meeting just before lunch I came up with the idea of “The Disability Sports Network” with a vague idea that I would shoot any and all kinds of disabled sports, so I purchased the domain name, got some website space and for £125 I set it up within 7 days and with luck I got to shoot my first game 8 days later, and the my visitor count was 30 interactions/views plus per day for the next 2 months, so I carried on with photographing any game I could.
Since that day in April when I collapsed, I have done so much, in the terms of photography, published 2 magazines on Disabled Sports, wrote a book on my journey called “an unexpected disability and been to some high profile event including 2 Paralympics. So some would say this is a calling, divine luck, however to me my niche in photography has finally shown its self to me and my work, even myself I am seeing a massive improvement in what I photograph, as I am now doing it from a disabled perspective, which if you look at the photos I have taken, they are getting better every time.
So thank you to all the medical staff who have helped me even my trip to hospital some 6 days ago as I collapsed as someone kicked my leg and I went into a full leg spasm.
Without being made disabled, I would not have done any of the things I have done and seen through my viewfinder, I have plans for more, so watch this space for details.
Regards
Michael
