Who Is Someone That Inspires You and Why?
Sam Cleasby.
I first met Sam in 2018, via Scope’s Online Community. I joined in the hope of connecting with other people who had recently become disabled, been waiting for a diagnosis, and felt lonely by it all.
Sam was the Senior Online Community Officer at the time, and she welcomed me with open arms, as she did with every member.
She was incredibly down-to-earth, the watchful mother of the community. A really awesome woman.
It wasn’t even a month after I joined before she reached out to me and asked if I would like to volunteer as a community champion. I was over the moon to be given the opportunity and said yes after reading the guidelines.
Unfortunately, not long after I accepted the role, I was admitted to hospital. Sod’s law! About 3 or 4 months later, as I had regained some energy, I wanted to get back to volunteering on the community.
Every day from that point, throughout my hospital and rehabilitation stay, I volunteered by welcoming new members, helping disabled people, and helping to make sure the community remained safe and supportive by reporting to the team.
I started out by typing with one finger, because I had poor co-ordination. But with intensive physiotherapy and occupational therapy, I regained a lot of skills, albeit not perfect. By the time I was discharged, I could type so quickly that my iPad kept lagging to try and keep up with me.
All thanks to Sam because she gave me a reason to persevere.
However, this wasn’t why I found Sam inspiring. It was when I first came across her blog, So Bad Ass, where she talks about her life with Inflammatory Bowel Disease, Ulcerative Colitis, and living with a stoma.
I binge-read her story one day and was so moved by her experiences, her diagnosis story, and her general approach to life, that I thought, “Wow, she is awesome. She doesn’t sugarcoat anything.”
Her words have often moved me to tears because she writes such powerful pieces. She’s candid and you can feel the rawness in her writing.
Sam is the inspiration behind why I considered blogging to document my recovery journey. And here I am, 3 years on, still blogging. I’ve been featured on the cover of a magazine, written about disability for several publications, and most likely have typed hundreds of thousands of words to this very day.
I wouldn’t be where I am today if Sam hadn’t inspired me to start a blog.
Tried to write this without crying, but failed. I’m eternally grateful to Sam, she’ll always be my inspiration and I’ll always love her for that and because of the person she is.
Thank you, Sam.
Who is someone that inspires you and why?
