When Life Gives You Lemons: Amelia Denton

I am loving this WLGYL series because it has introduced me to some incredible people.  Sometimes those people were under my nose and I've been able to look at them with new eyes.

I've known Amelia since she was a little girl.  She is my friend Suzanne's niece and my first meeting with her was when she was a bridesmaid at Suzanne's wedding 26 years ago (in fact it was Suzanne's husband, Jon, who first introduced me to Andy).

I really did not take much notice of Amelia at the time apart from noticing the fact that had a disability.  I knew nothing of disabilities in those days and I probably felt pity and maybe even a level of discomfort in engaging with her.  She was a little girl after all and communicating with children, let along children with disabilities was not something on my radar in those days.

But I am so fortunate to have got to know Amelia the person.  I've seen her grow up through Suzanne's eyes as she posted pictures of Amelia's achievements, always the proud Auntie.  And now I know Amelia the woman, the mother, the person who wants to make a difference, and I'd like you to get to know her too........

Amelia and her son, Elliot

When Life Gives You Lemons: Rosie Jones

A few weeks ago I attended the Women of the World festival in Norwich.  I took part in a panel about how the role of caring often falls to women and  I also shared my story and the lessons it has taught me on the final day.  I got to meet lots of lovely readers and signed copies of my book.

I stayed with my great friend Helen Linehan.  She was also talking at the event as part of a panel about women in the media (Helen co-wrote the BBC comedy, Motherland).  On the first night of the event the team from the incredibly successful and influential Guilty Feminist podcast were recording two live podcasts, the first was a focus on the Repeal the 8th vote .  Helen took part in that session and shared her very moving story about discovering that her first child with her husband Graham, had a fatal foetal abnormality.

The second podcast of the evening featured the comedian Rosie Jones.  I got to spend some time with Rosie in the Green Room back stage and as we chatted it struck me that she was a perfect candidate for the WLGYL series on the blog.

For those of you who don't know her, Rosie is a successful comedian, she also has cerebral palsy, she also recently came out as lesbian.

I loved meeting Rosie, we had a really good chuckle about our mutual hate of so called inspiration porn.  She's incredibly funny and if you are going to the Edinburgh Fringe later this summer make sure you go and see her show Fifteen Minutes.  Rosie explains the significance of fifteen minutes in this interview...