Advocacy
I want to advocate to raise awareness for young people, particularly those with long term health conditions such as Lupus and Anxiety, conditions that I suffer from.
While advocating I want to show the different struggles that come with being a young person with a long term illness and how I manage my illness. Achieving your goals and dreams are possible despite any challenges you face, I want to show and empower other young people to follow their dreams and not let an illness stop you from living and achieving.
THE GOAL
The goal is to raise the profile and provide insight into the lives of young people with long term illnesses and invisible illnesses. While empowering other young people like me I want to help them discover that they do have control over the choices in their life. I want to assist and share helpful resources with young people and show that having a long term illness doesn't have to stop you achieving your dreams and goals. I want to challenge and change the lack of representation. Finding your own territory is about finding your own place and purpose.
Our community interest company
Myself and my mum have created a CIC as an extension of my advocacy. Our CIC aims to offer a personal and different perspective on managing a long term illness as a young person and a carer. We want to not only empower young people and their carers, but help them find the best support for their needs.
Kat's Insights
INVISIBLE ILLNESSES
An Invisible illness is just an illnesses that isn't physically obvious. Not being able to see that a person is unwell by just looking at them causes more problems than you would think. Since i was diagnosed over a decade ago this is one of the biggest challenges I've had to deal with. Constantly having people deny that I have health issues just because I don't look unwell is the most ridiculous issue ever. I want to make the world aware that just because someone doesn't look like they are suffering with health issues doesn't mean they have the right to disbelieve them.
COPING & MANAGING
Coping with life in general is hard, especially as a young person. Having to make life changing decisions about your education, career and the future is very stressful. It can become even more stressful when you have to cope with a long term health condition on top of that it can make you feel even less in control and powerless. Learning to manage and cope is the key to conquering. Everyone copes and manages differently, I'ts all about testing different approaches until you find one that works for you.
Patience
One thing I am learning to appreciate on my journey with Lupus and my mental health is patience. I’ve always tried to overcome hurdles quickly and its often caused more problems than it’s solved. I know now that if I had given myself more time and not felt pressured to get back to ‘normal’ as quickly as possible, I would have had the time to think about what was best for me. Having a long term illness sometimes requires doing things a bit differently and that some things make take a bit longer to achieve, but allowing yourself the time to do things your own way at your pace can be really beneficial.
Katty's territory
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Lupus Uk
awareness.manage.represent
I am currently writing articles and working with Lupus UK to help raise awareness of Young People with Lupus.
I want to represent and advocate for other young people and raise the profile and insight
into the lives of young people with lupus. Each of my articles cover different topic that show different challenges that come with the disease and how I've managed and hopefully providing advice for others.
To read my articles for Lupus UK News & Views magazine become
a member of lupus uk
AdvocacyPosts
