In Loving Memory Of Oliver Collins 1993-2021 "A zebra earned his wings; fly free Ollie"
Welcome back to another episode of Because We are Strong, where we attempt to bridge the gap between the rare disease and chronic illness community and the rest of the world. Today we are chatting with Oliver, a disability advocate and a 27-year-old lawyer from Australia who hopes to show people that having a disability shouldn’t hold you back from achieving anything you set your mind to.
Connect with Oliver:
https://www.instagram.com/imolliecollins/
https://twitter.com/imolliecollins?lang=en
Check out Oliver's blog: https://imolliecollins.com
The CUBE and OOLER systems are two really cool gadgets that fit over the top of your mattress and use water to control the temperature of your bed. Right now Chili is offering my audience a really great deal. When you go to Chilisleep.com/findyourrare20, you can get 20% off the CUBE all sleep systems with findyourrare20. I hope you’ll check out Chili and see why I love their products so much.
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Hey Peeps ! Welcome back to another episode of Because We are Strong, where we attempt to bridge the gap between the rare disease and chronic illness community and the rest of the world. Today we are chatting with Oliver, a disability advocate and a 27 year old lawyer from Austraila who hopes to show people that having a disability shouldn’t hold you back from achieving anything you set your mind to. I am your host Theresa
And I'M Kristine, so let's dive in
Welcome Oliver Thank you so much for being here with us today !
So Oliver when we came across your Instagram page we saw how hard to advocate for people with disabilities and knew we wanted to help you with that advocacy and give your voice a place on this podcast. Could you tell our listeners where your journey with your own disability began ?
So what was your childhood like?
You said that with FOP over time your muscles and ligaments turn into bone. How has that progression been?
Are there any treatment options or trials for FOP?
So could you tell our listeners how common this disease is? How many people do you know of that this affects?
Can you tell people what it is like to be someone who is disabled living amongst those who aren't?
Let’s talk about ableism - For those of you who may not know ableism is descrimnation in favor of able bodied people. Most people outside the disability community have never heard of ableism or even know what it is. Can you touch on this for our listeners ?
Has being disabled affected your career as a lawyer?
Why did you decide to share your journey with your disabilities publicly ?
What are some things you wish people who aren’t disabled could learn and take from people who are ?
What is something you want to see change for people in your community?
What is next for you ?
Where can people find you to connect with you ?
Oliver thank you so much for being here with us today and sharing your disability journey and allowing others to see what life is like in your shoes. I think it is so important for people to be able to learn from people like you and to hopefully create change and more inclusion in the world.
To our listeners who tune in every week, thank you always for your continued support and desire to learn alongside us in an effort to bridge the gap.
Until next time - live large and stay rare .