PGP / SPD My story:

I Care Because I Know What It Means to Need Support: I Care Because I Know What It Means to Need Support I restarted blogging while I was pregnant, but my instinct to advocate for others started long before that. For most of my life, I have spoken up when something felt unfair, harmful or inaccessible. I have raised awareness of disability, challenged barriers, supported people through difficult situations and tried to use my experiences to create something positive. This collage holds so many chapters of my life. It shows pregnancy and motherhood. It shows disability, mobility aids and moments when simply getting through the day required determination. It shows hospital visits and the years in which I supported my son through Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia. It also shows campaigning, protest, awareness work and the gradual development of the advocate I am today. Behind every photograph is a story. Some are filled with love and joy. Others represent fear, exhaustion, pain and circumstan...

Thirty-eight years on this earth and some days I still feel like I’m standing in the rubble of battles I never asked to fight. Healing from trauma isn’t linear. It isn’t aesthetic. It isn’t a cute quote on a pastel background. It’s messy and inconvenient and sometimes it creeps up on you years later and whispers, “You’re not done yet.” And when it comes to my son’s cancer — and all that happened around us when he was diagnosed — I don’t think a mother ever just “gets over” watching her child fight for their life while simultaneously navigating systemic failures, corruption, and ableism that caused real, tangible harm. That kind of trauma doesn’t sit neatly in the past. It rewires you. It embeds itself in your nervous system. It lives in your bones. Some days I’m strong and composed and overflowing with gratitude. Other days it hits me sideways and I realise I’m still carrying pieces of it all — not just the illness, but the environment we were forced to survive within. Then the guilt ...

“I don’t know how to convince you to care about other people.” I don’t know how to convince you to care about other people. And honestly? I shouldn’t have to. Empathy isn’t radical. Inclusion isn’t political. Caring about disabled people, marginalised communities, and those different from you is the bare minimum of being human. If someone’s existence feels like an inconvenience to you, that’s not their problem — it’s a values problem. We all deserve dignity. We all deserve access. We all deserve to belong. No convincing required. 💗 Sarah Wingfield ❤️  Independent Disability Advocate  #DisabilityAwareness #InclusionMatters #EmpathyIsNotOptional #HumanRights #KawaiiDollDecora Alt text: Illustrated group of diverse children standing together, smiling and holding a sign that reads “I don’t know how to convince you to care about other people.” The children vary in skin tone, hair, clothing, and ability, including two wheelchair users and a child wearing a hijab. Soft pastel backgr...

It’s often the smallest things that mean the most. I’m still struggling and working around chronic pain, with Unit 3 of my course left to finish. Some days take real effort just to keep going. My man came home at dinnertime and surprised me with coffee and sushi, and I honestly can’t thank him enough. 💛 So much of the good happens quietly, behind the scenes. It isn’t framed, photographed, or always visible to others — but it matters. I’m deeply grateful for the way he looks after me, works with me, and shows up for our relationship in ways that make life feel lighter. Now, back to my studies — I have my ASL session tomorrow. I’m also incredibly grateful for accessibility. I’ve had to do courses before with zero flexibility and even had to quit some because of it. Inclusion means being able to study around our conditions — and still achieve the same as anyone else. Always do random acts of kindness. The world needs them now more than ever. Sarah Wingfield 😊 #support #inclusion #relati...

Hopeful finally...to be able to have a shower in our own home and use a real toilet in its own private room!!! I cannot wait! It's gonna be like Christmas or winning the lottery!!! <3 YES!! I Having got myself a caseworker from an organisation called Shelter, I am now feeling hopeful: summary of conversation: Apparantly due to my deprivation of much needed services, i.e. toilet/bathroom, and with being registered as a disability, and suffering for 7 months+, etc... I should have been awarded a stairlift regardless of any letter from any consultant before now. They apparantly need to assess on the needs of the individual and how high the needs are in which a commode is not suitable for use long term and no access to a toilet/bath or shower is not again a long term solution, along with no access to upstairs. I am not going to state anything that is confidential or important to the case but the caseworker will now write to social and myself and I am wai...

I have been hiding away and avoidant again for a while but now i need to speak up again... Xmas is over now and we had a nice xmas as we stayed at my parents and they had bought a sofa and a matching sofa bed for their living room just for us!! Can you believe it, changed their furniture just so i would be able to sleep over at xmas. I love them so much! We are still fighting for a stairlift, our son is 6 weeks old 1st january and I am still trying to get my 6 weeks check up. Whats happened about the stairlift? Well, my new consultant originally refused to send social a letter about me as he refuses all his patients since a check from the county council previously bounced therefore its been seriously held up. My SPD's getting much worse and a while ago now i was in hospital with the stomach pains, different to SPD pains and the consultant who saw me on the 10th the one who discharged me without telling me who i was reassigned to on the 10th Dec said that it would subsid...

Never mind baby meeting the light at the end of the tunnel, I did today when I met my new consultant and the new midwife that dealt with me today. I was extremely scared and anxious and worried about my baby and all the talk of high risk and things and this morning on the way I got a call from a children in need team lady which panicked me lots as it is all unnecessary but if they insist on wasting their time I am more than confident that they will be able to see the facts. Saw the midwife before the consultant and I broke down and cried a bit and was honest about my past and how things have gone so far, and all I want is to be able to walk again, have a healthy baby make sure he is ok and be the best mam I can be, she gave me all my results from back in August till today, which no one had given us previously and she gave me a much needed cuddle. That cuddle was just enough to lift all the stress and weight from our shoulders we have been carrying till today, 37th week in pregnancy. S...

My husband has been offered a job position, we don't know when it would start as it may even start next year but just incase it was to start immediately we phoned social services who cannot provide 24/7 care and only do pop out visits (the problem is its during the week full time) so he cannot even do that as he needs to 'babysit' me.... Everything keeps making me feel like a problem. My husband however has said that I come first and I cried into his arms for a bit, I love his cuddles, and that as it is a fact that I need the 24/7 care he is not going to jeopardise my or our unborn baby's health just because others cannot see nor accept this fact. I am in agony now and we have not slept right for 5 nights in total now due to my pelvis pain. I am sick of the commode but I guess I have to get use to it anyway as the new house doesn't have a downstairs toilet and the social and others have said I don't need one as I have that. I wonder how they expect me to shower!...