Behind the Scenes: Part 2

(Click HERE for Part 1) 

Part 2...

…Life inevitably got in the way, and our cartooning sessions became less frequent. When it came to taking my options at school, I would have loved to have taken art but didn’t feel that my artwork was up to the required standard, so dropped it at the age of 14 to pursue other subjects.

 By the time I left school, my future plans were firm in my mind: I wanted to study to become a Child Behavioural Therapist. I studied Sociology and Psychology at sixth form, and started to do work experience in the Child Behavioural field, which I absolutely loved, and I applied to go to University to study Child Psychology.

I unexpectedly became ill at the age of 17 with Dysautonomia, and to cut a very long story short, it became apparent that this was a long term problem that couldn’t be ignored. I eventually reluctantly accepted that I would need to make a different career choice, and so began the next stage, finding something that I could do from home that would enable me to work.

Looking for a new direction with fresh optimism, I started to set up a business that I called “Silver Linings” and made my own handmade jewellery, which expanded to making gem trees. Unfortunately, two of the symptoms of my illness were firstly that I found I couldn’t sit up for long, and secondly that my skin had become sensitive to things that I hadn’t had sensitivity to before, including various metals! I got around the second problem by wearing gloves, and hoped that the first problem would somehow fix itself.

 I approached The Princes Trust who were very supportive and enthusiastic about Silver Linings. Very quickly though, we realised that it wasn’t going to work when I couldn’t manage the meetings that were required for the Princes Trust to fund me. Unsurprisingly, the problem of needing to sit up to make things for Silver Linings didn’t fix itself either, and I gradually accepted that this wasn’t the right route for me after all.

 It was time for a rethink again, onwards and upwards…

Click HERE for the final part, Part 3....