A Welsh woman who overcame severe depression by writing her life story revealed she was once sacked because she was in a wheelchair.<\/p>\n
Samantha Maxwell\u2019s campaign has been boosted by the Pendine Park care organisation which has donated \u00a3325 towards producing an audiobook version of her acclaimed autobiography, CP Isn\u2019t Me.<\/p>\n
The 33-year-old, who has cerebral palsy, says writing transformed her mental health after she reached one of the darkest periods of her life.<\/p>\n
Now she wants her story to challenge attitudes towards disabilities while making it accessible to people with visual impairments and those who struggle to read printed books.<\/p>\n
The Wrexham-born author says she spent years feeling defined by her disability rather than her personality and abilities.<\/p>\n
She hopes the audiobook will encourage people to look beyond the wheelchair and see the person instead.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was discounted from so many opportunities in my teens and early adult life just because I have a disability,\u201d said Samantha.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve been turned away from shops, employers refused to consider me for jobs, and in one case I was sacked because certain managers did not want someone in a wheelchair representing them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Now Samantha is fighting back, not just for herself, but for people of all ages and lifestyles who face the challenges of overcoming disability.<\/p>\n
The book was taken on by Wrexham publisher Allan Longshadow, of motiv8.me Press and became a resounding hit, with glowing five star reviews online.<\/p>\n
It is now available through major bookstores including Waterstones, through online sources, and via the charity Scope.<\/p>\n
She said: \u201cAt first it just for me, as a form of therapy, I suppose, but soon I found I enjoyed writing and the improvement in my mental health was transformative. I felt a thousand times better than I ever had.\u201d<\/p>\n
Her mum, Christine, encouraged Samantha to develop her writings into a book, which became a thought-provoking autobiography, winning glowing five-star reviews online.<\/p>\n
Samantha said: \u201cIt was about my own fight to challenge the stigmas of living with a disability, allowing my personality to escape the boundaries society had imposed on me as a result of my cerebal palsy (CP).<\/p>\n
\u201cI wanted to tell my story of growing up with CP but also express how there is much more to me than CP. Writing was a way to explain the huge challenges anyone with a disability faces in getting the world to see them for who they are rather than being pigeon-holed by their condition.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to Samantha, she\u2019s hugely grateful to Pendine Park for supporting her appeal and thanked managers and staff in person when she visited the care organisation\u2019s Bryn Bella care home in Wrexham.<\/p>\n
She said: \u201cI did not know anything about Pendine Park until my mum was chatting with a friend of hers, Jackie Brand, who is a nurse here. It was Jackie who suggested I apply for help from Pendine Arts and Community Trust (PACT). I was bowled over when the trust offered to donated \u00a3325 to my cause. It is so uplifting to have that kind of support. I cannot express my appreciation enough.\u201d<\/p>\n
The trust was set up by Pendine Park\u2019s arts-loving owners Mario and Gill Kreft to support cultural, educational, and community initiatives across the region.<\/p>\n
Pendine Consultant Artist in Residence, Sarah Edwards, met Samantha for the first time during her visit to Bryn Bella. She was hugely impressed by the way\u00a0 Samantha has coped with her own life challenges and by her steely determination to break the stigmas associated with disability.<\/p>\n
She said: \u201cIt has been a real pleasure to meet Samantha. We are delighted to sponsor her for the sum of \u00a3325 through the Pendine Arts and Community Trust (PACT) to help her raise funds to create an audio version of her first book. We feel it will be a wonderful resource for caregivers and the wider social care sector.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe also wish her the very best for the continued development and progress of Accessible Wrexham, for all her future endeavours and to even more incredible achievements.\u201d<\/p>\n
After Samantha gifted Sarah copies of each of her three books, Sarah said she would be sharing the stories with Pendine Park residents.<\/p>\n
She added: \u201cI know a number will identify with Samantha\u2019s narrative and the battles that she has gone through to achieve deserved recognition.\u201d<\/p>\n
Samantha has gone on to write two other books \u2013 Disabling Ableism<\/em>, and Silenced<\/em> \u2013 and is now working on a fourth book, which she says takes a slightly different direction as it will be a children\u2019s storybook.<\/p>\n She said: \u201cMy first passion was design. I graduated with a degree in Graphic Design from Wrexham university and that\u2019s where my original ambitions lay.<\/p>\n \u201cBut I struggled for so long to find employment, and acceptance, fighting to survive in a world that so often misunderstands disability. The result is I have found myself on an entirely different path to anything like the one which I once envisaged.\u201d<\/p>\n As well as her writing Samantha has now also become a well-respected disability advocate and has been appointed an ambassador for Wrecsam2029, calling for accessibility and inclusion to be placed at the heart of the city\u2019s UK City of Culture bid.<\/p>\n She\u2019s also a Project Leader with Accessible Wrexham, an organisation set up to gather and make available an archive of information and practical guidance for residents and visitors with disabilities in Wrexham and surrounding areas.<\/p>\n Producing an audio version of her first book CP Isn\u2019t Me <\/em>is the next big goal in her mission to raise awareness of disability issues.<\/p>\n She said: \u201cWe need \u00a32,000 to be able to get this off the ground and I am nearly there. Through a combination of activities like cake sales, online crowd-funding and appeals for donations, we have raised more than \u00a31,500. I just need \u00a3466 more and then we can get production started.\u201d<\/p>\n