D, CF & Me

This review was originally posted on Adventures In Theatreland . Housemates run at the Sherman Theatre Cardiff is unfortunately over, if it ever comes back I urge you to see it! {PR Invite} Written by Shannon | Photography by Mark Douet Housemates  is a show that offers an incredible insight into the reality of disabled welsh people in the 1970s. Jim Mansell ( Peter Mooney ) volunteers at Ely Hospital to take a group of people with disabilities to the park for a day out, he assumes they’d gone before, but finds out that’s not the case. In the group is Alan Duncan ( Gareth John ), a young man with down’s syndrome and he and Jim bond over music. Alan has lived in Ely Hospital all his life and understandably, he hates it. All he wants is to live in a house and be in a band. Jim realises how badly the residents in the hospital get treated and tries to get them out. The show highlights the journey to shutting down institutionalised care and the start of supported living. The cast of Hou...

The Cinema In The Power Station, London 5 stars Director: Harry Holland UK rating:  Length: 19 minutes Cast: Lindsay Duncan, Tom Holland This review contains mentions of poor mental health and suicide. SPOILERS AHEAD FOR LAST CALL When I saw Harry Holland’s Instagram story advertising a screening and Q&A of his latest short that was happening on the first day of my London birthday trip I knew I had to be there. Holland is probably most well known for being Tom Holland’s younger brother but I think in the future this is sure to change as he starts to be recognised for his own artistry.  Last Call isn’t Holland’s first short but it’s bound to be the one that people talk about for years to come. At 19 minutes long it is a stunning piece of work. Certainly a film to be proud of. Last Call tells the story of Kate (Lindsay Duncan) and her son, Charlie (Tom Holland). Kate goes to meet up with Charlie, seemingly for the first time in a while and the tension is high. They converse ...

 I’m sure it comes as a surprise to absolutely no one but I’ve been neglecting this blog.  When the pandemic started I decided that I would try and get as much content as I could out on my blog and YouTube channel but I did neither of those things. I wanted to, I was bored and shielding but instead of writing about what I was doing, watching or reading I did other things. I started doing jigsaw puzzles, I’ve done some photography, I’ve read (not as much as I’d like to), I’ve moved around some decor in my room, I’ve finally got rid of old books and dvds that I won’t read or watch again, I’ve started two new instagrams (one is for books, I started that yesterday, the other is for Harry Potter), I’ve started a Redbubble shop for my lettering and art, I’ve watched theatre productions from the comfort of my bed (though I’d rather be in an actual theatre), I’ve started a TikTok and I’m not too bad at it, I’ve decorated my bedroom for Halloween, I’ve had socially distant meetings wit...

Well, last night I watched Cats (1998) for the first time. It was interesting. Over the next twelve weeks I have to be in self isolation as I am considered high risk of getting a severe illness due to COVID-19 so I’m watching every DVD and every film on all my watchlists that I haven’t seen before. There’ll be reviews and thoughts here and there because no doubt I will have nothing else to do. Without further ado, here’s my thoughts on Cats (1998)! Cats is something that I’ve always thought was pure crazy. I can’t say I’m the biggest fan of any of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s work but this musical always stood out to me as just being weird and bad. It may not be as bad as I always thought but it’s definitely odd. One thing I have to say is if I saw this before seeing Cats (2019) then I would’ve been really confused because I don’t think there’s a lot of plot explaining in this one but in the new version there’s dialogue which conveys the plot better than the songs do in this case. I wasn’...

Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019) Director: Jon Watts UK rating: 12A Length: 129 minutes Cast: Tom Holland, Zendaya, Jake Gyllenhaal If you know anything about me, you’ll know that I am a massive Marvel fan. I would happily sit for hours watching the films or tv shows, they’re that good! With that in mind, I may be biased. However, in my opinion, Spider-Man: Far From Home is the film to beat this year.  I was able to go see the first showing of Spider-Man: Far From Home in Odeon at midnight which is always a fun thing to do as you’re usually surrounded by other mega fans of the franchise. The screen we were in was actually quite empty and basically silent throughout the film which was kind of sad but I think I reacted enough for everyone in there to be honest! There’s so much to talk about with this film that I honestly don’t know where to start. Please be aware that there will be spoilers in this post! Don’t read unless you’ve seen the film! I have to begin wi...

So May is CF awareness month, I am 19 and have Cystic Fibrosis, I also have a 2-year-old little girl, I'm not going to lie to you having CF and being a mum is not easy if anything it's bloody hard but it's so so worth it. I wouldn't change it for the world. So what does CF mean for me as a person? Well, it's obviously a massive part in my life but I try to get a positive out of anything I can. CF is not easy and from the outside, it may look like nothing is wrong but inside everything is effected. It doesn't just affect you physically it also puts a huge stress on your mental health, the dreaded thoughts no one should have to live with thinking about, seeing your friends pass away because of a disease that you are also living with every day of your life, constantly thinking about when the next medicines are or if you've got any appointments coming up, no one sees how it truly affects the person in every aspect as well as all the people around them becau...

I’m Sasha and I have Cystic Fibrosis. I was diagnosed with CF when I was just 5 days old due to being 6 weeks premature and having a blockage in my bowels. I had a pretty healthy childhood, was a chubby little baby and I was always active. When I was 8 years old, my weight was so severe I had weight 2-3 stone and I was struggling to fight infections so they decided I needed a food tube. I had my mickey button until I was 14. It wasn’t until I was 14/15 years of age when things started to deteriorate and started changing my life slowly. I was so fed up of living the life I was living, I started missing medication and wasn’t keeping up with chest clearance. It got the better of me. When I w ent into year 11, I picked up a little but it still wasn’t the best. I was in hospital very sick when my GCSEs had started and was in hospital for the period of the time from start to the finish of my GCSEs and unfortunately I wasn’t allowed to re-sit them so I left school with no GCSEs and all m...

"3 words to describe living with CF?"                      1. hard                      2. tiring                      3. limiting "How many different medications do you have and when do you take them?"                      I have eight different tablets and two nebulised medications that I take everyday. I have seven different tablets in the morning but the majority are two or more tablets for each different one, then there's three different ones at night. I take Creon with food and I do the nebulisers in the afternoon with physio. "Did you know you had CF as soon as you were born?"                      No, I was diagnosed with CF via heel prick test when I was 4 weeks old. "What's the hardest thing ab...

How & When We Met: I met Shannon in comprehensive school, we were in the same form class, so met in year 7. We didn't really interact until year 8, this is when we started becoming friends, I questioned why sometimes she was in the little meeting room in form and why she got to stay inside some days and she explained that she had cf. Of course, I'd never heard of this so when I got home that day I did a little research on what that was. Becoming Friends: We started off as mutual friends with Amy, I'd known Amy from primary then Shannon and Amy became friendly and of course, we became friends too. We had sleepovers and went out. As me and Shannon became closer Amy became more distant. We were all still friendly with each other and still are. Shannon and I seemed to share more interests. My Understanding of CF: To my understanding, CF is a genetic disease that 1 in 25 people are carriers of and don't even know it. It is described as an "invisible illn...

This post was originally posted in 2015, I've added a little bit to the beginning to show why wishes are so important to kids with life threatening illnesses but the story remains the same. On August the 19th in 2015 I had one of the best days of my life. I met the world famous beauty blogger Zoe Sugg, AKA Zoella.  I had this opportunity thanks to Rays of Sunshine. They are a wish granting company similar to Make A Wish and back when I was 15 Zoe Sugg was one of my idols. RoS ask for three wishes and this was one of mine, I'm grateful now that this was the one that happened as I don't know what I would have done had I met Demi Lovato (she sent me a signed photo though!) and my other wish was to go spend the day at BBC Radio 1 but they couldn't do that one either so I got to meet Zoe. Things like this make CF okay. I have friends who wanted to go to America and swim with dolphins, I've had friends who've met Niall Horan (very jealous of them!) and I ...