Fund your survival:
Still Fighting: Three Years and Counting
by Sarah Wingfield
Independent Disability Advocate / Blogger / Actress / Producer / Artist / Charity Volunteer / Activist +
I never quit.
But I’m not quite succeeding either.
Not yet.
Three years of relentless effort. Three years of knocking on doors that never open, of being told to "wait," to "be patient," to "prove myself" over and over again like I haven’t already lived a lifetime doing exactly that. My skills are real. My talent is real. My capabilities are undeniable to anyone who’s actually paying attention.
But so often—they’re not.
So I keep moving. I keep fighting. Because standing still is not an option when survival depends on movement. I don’t have the luxury of giving up. I never did.
In a world that dismisses disabled bodies, that underestimates disabled minds, that fears and marginalises anything it doesn’t understand—I create. I advocate. I write. I act. I volunteer. I produce. I organise. I paint. I push. I build opportunities from the rubble. I forge a path in the dark with my own two hands, bruised and tired and still going. I action positive change and make help a reality for others.
I am a fighter.
I am a warrior.
I am still here.
Three years and counting.
I don’t need empty praise or patronising encouragement. I need paid work. I need investment. I need those in power to see that I am already everything they claim to be looking for.
But whether they see it or not—I'm not stopping.
I will fund my survival with every ounce of creative energy I have. I will speak up, even when the silence is deafening. I will rise, even when the world tries to bury me. I will be loud, messy, brilliant, flawed, determined—and real.
So no, I haven’t "made it" yet.
But I am making something.
And that matters.
Sarah ❤️
