Disability Memoir

Stroke of Love is the life story of a young stroke survivor from Texas named Hether Flanigan. It is a story of resilience, determination, strength, and love. A story about the human spirit, the will to live life to the fullest, the power of the human mind, and the love that surrounds us.

In the depths of despair, contemplating suicide, I gazed out a rain-streaked window in Maryland, where blurred colors in a parking lot mirrored my shattered soul. The shame of being sexually abused haunted me with recurring nightmares and PTSD, leading to a life cloaked in a complex facade of military titles and untold secrets. In this powerful memoir, published poet and author Adam Volant shares his raw and inspiring testimony of overcoming unimaginable brokenness to achieve success.

Wie können wir Inklusion endlich umsetzen? Eine so persönliche wie politische Geschichte. 2016 wird Hadija Haruna-Oelker Mutter eines behinderten Kindes. Immer wieder trifft sie auf Barrieren und trennende Systeme, die seit Jahrzehnten bekannt sind: Bürokratie, pseudoinklusive Schulen oder unhinterfragte Diskriminierungen und Abwertungen im Alltag.

I Kept Walking opens in 1940s Tehran when a misguided prank leaves three- year-old Minou frozen in fear. Days later, a doctor breaks the news to her mother: "Your daughter has polio." To understand why nothing is as it seems-the cause of her polio or why her dutiful Jewish mother, who was married off at 13, thwarted her dream of marriage, Minou must flee Iran and confront the psychological toll of her polio. I Kept Walking is the audacious account of a bold young woman who was unwilling to be crushed by polio or the prohibitions of a conservative society.

Left partially paralysed below the rib cage by polio, Anne Wafula Strike was forced to flee her native Kenyan village, moving across the country with her family. After overcoming additional adversity, including the loss of her mother and ableist prejudice, Anne moved to the UK, where she discovered her talent for wheelchair racing. The first East African to compete in her sport, representing Kenya in the 2004 Paralympics before joining Paralympics GB, Anne is now a fierce advocate for the promotion of the games around the world, and a champion of disabled rights.

Born deaf and discovering encroaching blindness at the age of 16, Anthony Lawton’s future appeared to be full of locked doors. Prejudice. Delayed education. Distorted speech. Limited sight. But when benign strangers intercede and inner gifts reveal themselves the opportunity to pursue a childhood dream of speaking and participating in mainstream society become a realisable vision. He would need to do this before the consequences of dual sensory loss would again close the doors.

At the age of sixty, and having lived with Parkinson’s disease for over ten years, Guy Deacon CBE set out on one last adventure: to drive solo from his home in the UK 18,000 miles and through twenty-five countries to Cape Town on the southern tip of Africa. This incredible journey, across Europe and down the full length of Africa, took the former British Army officer over twelve months. Along the way, he broke down five times, underwent one emergency evacuation, and took 3,650 prescription pills.

Carly-Jay Metcalfe was born with cystic fibrosis, survived a double-lung transplant at the age of 21 and faced a rare cancer at the age of 30. What she has endured should have killed her, but her humour, courage and optimism became her best survival skills. From her hospitalised childhood to her many friendships, loves and losses, Metcalfe shares the fickle nature of life with candour and warmth. She writes with compelling insight about organ donation, opioid addiction and survivor's guilt, while still managing to find joy amongst the wreckage.

I am not trying to be a role model, just a possibility. There are obstacles, and people may not always treat you properly, but there is progress. My story is one of many that doesn't choose death over paralysis. It's just a story that doesn't get told often enough.

The Umbrella Picker tells the true story of a woman who was lost for 45 years until she learned that she is Autistic. After a long and relentless journey of searching for answers, the hand of fate finally revealed to her what she had waited a lifetime for. Learning she was Autistic was life changing. She is no longer lost, and having found her own, unique way, Jane has written the (brutally honest!) book she wished was available to her years earlier.

This book is about one big rollercoaster. It's about a girl who has CP (cerebral palsy) and the challenges she has faced throughout her life. A girl who is lucky to be blessed with people who stood beside her all the way. A girl who tries to do it all and doesn't let her CP get in the way of life. She just goes with it!

The story of Dr Amo Raju OBE DL is truly remarkable. Today, he is a multi-award winning member of society. Yet as a disabled child to present day, many around him have attempted to determine his future according to their own limiting expectations which led him to a thirty-year secret ‘relationship’ with depression. Authors Amo and Mani have ensured the protagonist, AJ Rai, based on Dr Amo Raju OBE DL, takes you on a journey of pain, heartache, laughter and triumph whilst capturing real-life scenarios which will keep you gripped to the next chapter.

Fred Rutman was certainly up against it. It being the Grim Reaper. The Reaper unleashed its full arsenal, pitting Fred against much of the medical system he trusted with his life. Even if Fred won the initial battles, could he win the war? The Summer I Died Twenty Times is a medical trauma memoir unlike any other. In one package, Fred Rutman provides all the overcoming adversity, resilience and beating the odds a listener expects. With a side of sarcasm and humor. He may not be the hero you expected. He just might be the hero you need.

In this inspiring memoir, Emily Falcon chronicles her lifelong journey with a congenital cardiac condition. In 1982, at seven weeks old, she had a heart attack that destroyed 40 percent of the left side of her heart. This was her entry into a world of multiple cardiac procedures, surgeries, hospitalizations, and a later diagnosis of glaucoma. Balancing these serious conditions defined her life.

Born four weeks premature and weighing little more than five pounds, Scott A. McCreight had a rough start and uncertain future. He was placed for adoption, but the good news didn’t last long: shortly after, Scott was diagnosed with cerebral palsy. Developmental delays permeated his childhood, the odds for a “normal” life seemingly stacked against him.

«Sono Rachele e ho 29 anni. A un mese dalla nascita, è stato detto ai miei genitori che avevo la fibrosi cistica, una malattia genetica degenerativa da cui non si può guarire. La malattia non si vede perché colpisce principalmente gli organi interni; tutte le secrezioni sono alterate e molto dense, il muco ristagna ed è difficile respirare. Quando sono stata invitata a un evento della Fondazione per la Ricerca sulla Fibrosi Cistica, mi sono chiesta: come faccio a unire la mia passione per i motori con quello che mi sta più a cuore?»

Robert was a young man struggling to make it on his own when in 1990, he suffered a violent and traumatic experience when someone put a bullet through his brain. Robert tells the amazing story of survival during a time when life shriveled to dark emptiness and his future seemed hopeless.

Sam always knew he was starting life on the back foot. When his parents split, Sam, his mother and his brother had to learn to survive in a world not built for single-parent families. Add to that Sam's diagnosis with a form of dwarfism and the odds seemed stacked against them. As surgeons kept breaking and resetting Sam's legs in attempts to keep him walking, disability and poverty collided, and it took all the family's strength not to crumple in the impact. In Broke, lawyer and disability advocate Sam Drummond weaves a poignant, stirring and deeply compassionate tale of life on the fringes.

Bonner Paddock grew up just wanting to be ordinary. Diagnosed with cerebral palsy at age eleven, he guarded the truth about his health, building a normal life and keeping his secret from everyone—most of all himself—for the next eighteen years. But the sudden death of a friend’s young son due to cerebral palsy forced Bonner to reevaluate who he was and spurred him to pursue one breathtaking experience after another.

Luisa L’Audace wächst als einziges behindertes Kind in ihrem Heimatdorf auf. Warum sie im Sportunterricht immer als Letzte gewählt wird, in der Pause nicht mitspielen soll und ihre Freundinnen plötzlich nicht mehr neben ihr sitzen wollen, versteht sie lange Zeit nicht. Während andere Kinder Freizeitbeschäftigungen nachgehen, verbringt Luisa viel Zeit in Krankenhäusern, bei Therapien und Spezialist*innen. Als sie mit 14 einen Rollstuhl bekommt, fühlt sie sich zum ersten Mal in ihrem Leben frei. Doch mit der neu gewonnenen Mobilität nehmen auch die Anfeindungen zu.