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From relentless mockery to the safety and mobility of a wheelchair
Chennai-based Aarthi Sampath was diagnosed with Limb Girdle Muscular Dystrophy, a progressive wasting of the muscles which defies cure. No one in her family understood its implications. This is a touching story of her trials and tribulations and her…
Raising a Child with Autism to be Independent
Parents of Vinamra, who has mild autism disorder, always made it a point to remember that their son can lead a happy, fulfilled life if they channelized his energies well. Mother Rima Ved recounts how she and her husband tirelessly prepared their…
Life will only get you down if you focus on the negatives
61 year old Mdm Ruhaya is lovingly referred to as ‘sayang’ by the nurses here at KDF. With a characteristic twinkle in her eye and a warm chatty personality, one would not guess that she is a kidney failure patient. Mdm Ruhaya stays positive despite…
Celebrating Life’s Every Triumph Together – Fang Zhi’s Invisible Disability
All parties play a part in enabling a child with special needs - the system, parents, the public, as well as the child himself. When one is willing to give the child an opportunity and to accept the child, he is making a difference in the child’s…
My Son Taught Me To Be Less Judgemental
Janet Wong (52) from Singapore has had to deal with Selective Mutism in her son from an early age, but she wishes she could have detected the symptoms earlier to make her son feel more at ease. The child in this case needs to be loved and cared for…
My Mother’s Hairdresser: Dementia friendly or not?
A touching account of how a local hairdresser volunteered to help, when others refused, to give my mother, who lived with Young Onset Alzheimer's, a glam haircut and made her look uber cool in her final years.   They say it takes a village…
How I Survived Severe Depression
Shubhrata Prakash, an officer with the Indian Revenue Service currently on sabbatical in Bangkok, went through a very long episode of depression. At the end, she was inspired to write a book The D Word: A Survivor’s Guide to Depression that not only…
Smitha Sadasivan, who has Multiple Sclerosis on a wheelchair accompanied by her mother
Have Wheelchair, Will Travel
Smitha Sadasivan, who is diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis and uses a wheelchair, recounts her challenges with accessibility, toilets and medicines at airports and railway stations while travelling. I was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis in 1999. I…
They cannot understand from which angle I am disabled
Deepthi Nair, who was diagnosed with Myasthenia Gravis (MG), a rare, neuromuscular autoimmune condition that leads to varying degrees of muscle weakness, finds the ‘invisible symptoms’ of the disease causes misunderstanding among people and pain and…