06/10/2026
💚WORLD CEREBRAL PALSY DAY💚
Today I want to shine a light on my beautiful daughter, Ellie. 💚
People see the wheelchair.
People see the blindness.
People see the physical and learning disabilities.
But they don't always see the girl behind them.
They don't see the countless operations she has endured. The hospital admissions. The procedures. The seizures. The uncertainty. The pain. The exhaustion. The battles that have become part of everyday life.
Ellie lives with severe cerebral palsy, severe physical and learning disabilities, blindness and severe Lennox-Gastaut epilepsy. She is a wheelchair user and needs significant support with almost every aspect of her life. And yet, somehow, she continues to fight....
She smiles.
She laughs.
She loves.
She communicates in her own beautiful ways. She finds joy in the smallest things and her love for dancing and music... and she keeps going.
💚 That is strength.
💚 That is resilience.
💚 That is Ellie.
As her mum, I have watched her face adversity that no child should ever have to face. I have sat beside hospital beds, held her through seizures, worried through procedures and watched her overcome things that I sometimes wondered how any child could possibly overcome.
And I've learned something along the way...
Disability doesn't make someone less. Society's lack of understanding and the barriers placed in front of disabled people are what make life harder.
Behind every wheelchair is a person.
Behind every disability is a life.
Behind every carer is a family doing everything they can to keep someone they love safe, happy and included.
Ellie shouldn't have to constantly prove how strong she is just to have the same opportunities, dignity and inclusion as everyone else.
She deserves to be seen, heard, valued and included.
She deserves a world that adapts to her — not one that expects her to constantly adapt to it.
I am incredibly proud of my girl.
She has overcome more adversity than I could ever put into words, and despite everything life has thrown at her, she is still here, still fighting, still smiling and still showing us all what true courage looks like.
Ellie, you are not defined by your wheelchair.
You
