I was feeling quite rebellious by the time I was at college, sick of being the ‘sick girl’ and so I did my best to completely ignore my symptoms. Of course, that didn’t really work. Hand-writing my assignments caused crippling pain and my fatigue made it difficult to follow a lesson. However, my college were supportive and somehow I got through. 

My tutor also recognised that I had severe processing issues when it came to numbers and maths and I was diagnosed as dyscalculic.

During my last year of college I started doing occasional work on the side during holidays for small businesses locally and decided I wanted to use my new qualification to become a graphic designer. I managed to suitably impress a local firm, enough that I landed a part-time job when I was nineteen.

Over the next couple of years I continued to have the ‘usual’ issues I experienced while trying to balance working, occasionally being required to go to an office and then of course, Covid-19. 

So far, I’ve had Covid-19 four times, and it’s entirely wiped me out each time. I quickly realised that being immuno-surpressed I’d need to work from home fully, which I have done since the start of the pandemic.