this is how i roll
Adjusting to life with a disability can be difficult because most people tend to take their health for granted… until it’s gone!
It is easy to focus on what you have lost, but you can’t go back and change the past, nor should you spend your time wishing away your limits; you can change how you think about your disability and choose ways to build a meaningful life!
“Life has a way of throwing us the odd curveball … moments we never planned for, never invited, and often cannot control. These events can disrupt routines, challenge our assumptions, and force us to adapt faster than feels acceptable. We can meet disruption with resilience, curiosity, or calm defiance. We can rebuild, rethink, or simply breathe until the storm passes, but our values, our objectives, and our direction become our anchor when everything else shifts!“
my life so far…
carbon monoxide poisoning
It was an unusually bitter night, prompting Mum to shut the top windows she normally left cracked—a sensible, ordinary choice to keep out the chill. But beneath our roof, a quiet danger was unfolding. The flue on the kitchen Aga was blocked, leaving the toxic fumes with nowhere to go.
As we slept, carbon monoxide crept through the house, silent and scentless. I lost consciousness without warning. It was only because my dad found me and acted instantly that I survived. A simple, routine decision had quietly become the fragile line between life and death.
car crash #1
The vehicle rolled over several times before coming to a sudden stop. I was the last person to get out, crawling free while my workmates ran to safety. I ran as fast as I could toward them to get far away from the dangerous wreck.
Just seconds later, I looked back and BOOOOOOM…the vehicle exploded into a huge fireball. The heat was intense, even from a few yards away; it was frightfully obvious…. if any of us had been knocked unconcious, we wouldnt be here now!
The screeching noise of scraping metal stopped and then silence, all bar the hissing and strong smell of petrol…. this was it, she’s going to blow! My basic basic instinct kicked in telling me to run. Turns out, those few seconds were the difference between walking away safely and burning alive!
car crash #2
I was stationary, queuing for the Blackwall Tunnel, going nowhere, expecting nothing. Then a lorry crashed through the central barrier railings and slammed into my driver’s side without warning. The impact tore through metal and nearly severed my right arm at the elbow. One moment was ordinary traffic; the next was chaos, blood and disbelief.
There was no time to brace, no time to react—just the violence of impact and the realisation of what had happened to my arm. Stillness had felt safe. It wasn’t. A queue, a barrier, an out-of-control lorry—and everything changed in an instant.
heart attack
I was cutting the grass, an ordinary chore on an ordinary day, when everything suddenly changed. A heart attack struck without warning, the kind of event you assume happens to other people, somewhere else, not to you, not here in your own garden. I started to feel unwell so went in to get a glass of water—pain rather quicjly started to rise in my chest… my wife cslled 999.
I was incredibly fortunate that day. The paramedics who attended happened to be among the few licensed to administer a clot-busting drug, which turned out to be exactly what I needed. It transpired I had a total blockage in the left ventricle of my heart. Circumstance, timing and the right people arriving at the right moment made all the difference.
mS diagnosis
A small limp, fading balance, and slower thoughts grew into symptoms I could no longer ignore. My doctor examined me, suspected MS, and sent me to a neurologist. Their tests confirmed it, leading to another referral to an MS specialist neurosurgeon, Mr Nicholas.
After 3 MRIs scans and a lumberpuncture, it was eventually confirmed. Each step widened the horizon of what I was facing, turning a minor limp into a diagnosis that reshaped how I understood my body and the future I once assumed was secure.
diabetes diagnosis
It crept up quietly — more thirst than usual, more trips to the loo, a tiredness that didn’t shift no matter how much I rested. I put it down to age or stress, the way people often do, and carried on as normal. But something didn’t feel right, so I went to see my doctor and he did some tests.
The blood tests came back and confirmed it… type 2 diabetes. It wasn’t the answer I’d expected, and it took a moment to sink in properly. Suddenly there was a whole new vocabulary to learn — blood sugar levels, diet changes, medication — and a future that looked different to the one I’d imagined. A routine check-up had quietly become another turning point in my life!
Why We Must Rethink Governance
It’s the ultimate political paradox. We march to the ballot boxes election after election, desperately hoping for change, only to vote the same flawed systems back into power. History leaves a loooooong, undeniable trail of human failure to deliver on its promises. Yet, like clockwork, the cycle repeats, and the failure continues.
I don’t get the human psyche. Why do we keep doubling down on a broken machine? Perhaps it’s because we find comfort in the familiar, or maybe it’s the lack of a visible alternative. Human-led government is inherently vulnerable to bias, short-term greed, and divisive tribalism. We are trying to solve 21st-century existential crises with archaic systems built on ego and empty rhetoric.
It is time to change tact.
Changing tact doesn’t mean giving up on society; it means letting go of the illusion that traditional political structures will suddenly start working. We need to explore decentralised networks, algorithmic objectivity, and community-driven, data-backed decision-making.
Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. If we truly want a future that works, we have to stop electing the architects of our past failures. It’s time to look elsewhere…. and where better place to start than with our creator!