
How My Roots and HIV Diagnosis Shaped Me Into a Voice Against Stigma
Accepting my diagnosis and choosing to be visible—living without the fear of judgment and using my story to change the narrative surrounding HIV—is a milestone I am proud of.
Accepting my diagnosis and choosing to be visible—living without the fear of judgment and using my story to change the narrative surrounding HIV—is a milestone I am proud of.
Shortly after losing all of my vision, I was forced to navigate my new life as a blind trans woman with very little support, at least to begin with.
I had to unlearn a lot, especially the belief that success looks a certain way, comes at a certain time, or requires permission from anybody but me.
Losing my grandmother to bowel cancer made gut health an unavoidable theme in both my personal and professional life. Whether working with hospital patients, Olympic athletes, or high-performing professionals, everything kept leading back to the gut.
We spend our day working, giving to others and everyone around us, and we don’t ever give to ourselves. But it’s in those midnight hours, in the silence, that your fears creep in.
Despite the enormous negative impact chronic illness keeps having on my life, it has, however, opened up incredible opportunities for me to speak on podcasts, interviews and events about my lived experience and how I have turned my pain into power.
Living with chronic pain, in menopause and an invisible disability, I have faced many challenges, but the biggest one is people not understanding that conditions like endometriosis are incredibly serious and something we should be aware of.
We are excited to announce our partnership with KALM: Mindfulness Coach, a mindfulness and well-being app that offers guided breathing exercises, daily affirmations, and mindfulness tips to help users manage stress and anxiety and find balance in their daily lives.
My mum taught me to always stay vigilant in understanding when the majority or the ‘trusted voices’ were falling short. She told me to be brave enough to speak power to those who couldn’t always speak so boldly for themselves or were not given the platforms to do so.