Conversation with Helen Lear - Writer and Disabled Content Creator

On the Irregular with Java Bere

In this episode I talk with writer and disabled content creator, Helen Lear.

Helen and I met at drama school in Manchester, sixteen years ago. Since then, a lot has happened.

In her twenties, Helen dropped her life in the Uk to travel through Australia and New Zealand, envisioning a life of further international travel ahead of her.

During this time she began to experience serious health issues that were impacting her day to day life, which led her to the difficult decision of moving back to the UK.

Then, Age 27, and eight months into a new relationship, Helen suddenly lost her vision and became paralysed from the neck down, both overnight. Helen then had to go through the process of regaining her sight and learning how to walk again.

We talk about adjusting to her newly medicalised life at the time, having to give up a job she loved, and all the other versions of herself that she often thinks about, had none of this happened,

We talk about how using a wheelchair has opened up the possibility of travel for her again and how meeting new people and visiting new places soothes her feeling of unsettledness.

Welcome to my conversation with my lovely friend, Hele Lear.

A gentle warning, this episode contains swearing.

You can find Helen online at https://www.wheelybraw.scot and on Instagram @wheelybraw or you can head ot the shownotes for links.

Post production and jingle composition: Jon Tipler

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