This is crazy!

As you all know, I created CP Teens UK back in September 2013 just after I left school; everyone was moving on and away from home, so called 'friends' were disappearing into the sunset (how poetic!) on a daily basis, and I found myself thinking 'what am I going to do with my life?!'. And to cut a long story short, when I found people on Twitter of a similar age to me, who also had Cerebral Palsy, they understood everything and how rubbish 'friends' can be etc. and we were kind of saying to one another, 'it's okay though, it's not us, it's them!'. So when I set up CP Teens UK, I wanted to connect teenagers and young people (the audience has now grown way beyond teenagers and young people!) with Cerebral Palsy and sort of spread the message, 'it's not just you!'. Little did I know how many people this website and blog was going to reach, and the opportunities that would come out of it, like the opportunity I got offered yesterday...

I have been contacted by the WCPI (World Cerebral Palsy Initiative), which is a new website/project to become the first referral point for people with and/or involved with CP. They've asked me to write articles for them and they said that they 'believe that I'd be a real asset to the project'! (They're too kind, I won't be an 'asset' at all!) I just find it incredible that this is a project on a global level, they've read my blog and they've asked me to write articles for them?! Crazy! I'm always shocked at the amount of stuff that comes up when I google 'CP Teens UK' and 'Ellie Simpson Cerebral Palsy' etc. and the other day, I was shocked yet again to find another article written about me! I don't understand why people think this website and the social media sites alongside it are so amazing? I set up a website over a course of a couple of weeks back in September and I update this blog and Facebook and Twitter, and reply to emails in my spare time ... it's nothing 'special' and I do it because I enjoy interacting and hearing from you all and you all seem to enjoy it too! The article that I came across through my google search the other day can be found here: http://www.thecerebralpalsysite.co.uk/teenager-creates-uks-first-cerebral-palsy-support-site-young-people/#more-327 It's so, so weird to have 'random' people writing about you and articles popping up all over the internet! Last week, I went to London and I remembered absolutely everything but ... the sodding wheelchair! How we forgot it, I just really don't know! And I can safely say that I thought my back was going to break and my legs were going to drop off, especially when it came to Oxford Street. I thought to myself, 'I'm going to be making contact and saying hello to the pavement any second now!', because the pushing and shoving was just horrendous! Every time I saw someone in a wheelchair, I just wanted to run up to them and go 'YOU LUCKY BUGGER!', however I don't think they would have found it too funny, especially as they wouldn't have known my situation and why I was saying it! When we got back to the hotel room, all I wanted to do was lie down and sleep, but we had to go down for dinner. On the plus side, I got to wear my new 'heels' (okay, more like slight wedge! But, there as close to 'heels' as I'm ever going to get!) that I can ACTUALLY walk in! They are from Office (the shoe shop) and I highly recommend them to anyone like me who loves heels and longs to wear them, but their body disagrees!

Saturday is my Team GB Parallel Success Day and Classification. I'm so unprepared down to things that are unfortunately out of my control, so what will be, will be! I've also had some competition forms that have been sent through to me for May, argh! I am unsure if I am going to enter yet! The problem with my CP is I never know until I've actually thrown my club how well it's going to go, so no matter how much I practice/train, if I get a involuntary movement mid-throw, it just goes badly wrong! I can see the news headlines now, 'female athlete gives half of the audience concussion'! ... oops!