14 minute read
Emma Dolan-Horlock 56 Editors Last Word 56 Editors Last Word
Emma Dolan-Horlock
was trapped in bed for six years and dreaming of a walk in Sefton Park can be When successful local businesswoman tracked back to the bite. In 2014 she contracted Emma Dolan-Horlock a virus which was was bitten by a ‘Tick’ in intensified by severe America over 10 years immune suppression which ago, little did she realise devastated her Autonomic the devastating impact Nervous System (ANS) this would have on her and left her with a lifelife. The seemingly threatening condition inconsequential bite left called Addison’s disease. her bed-ridden, suffering ANS controls a person’s with Lyme Disease and a breathing, heartrate, blood host of associated medical pressure and temperature, conditions, leaving her this complication along bed-bound, unable to sit with her previous or stand, or access the diagnoses had devastating rehabilitation she needs to consequences for her aid recovery and help her already complex medical live a normal life. She now needs. Emma was spends every day lying eventually diagnosed flat on her back longing to with Pandysautonomia. enjoy the simple pleasures It was in 2014 when most people take for Emma developed a granted. Her only trips out severe respiratory flu like of the house during the virus rendering her bed past six years have been to ridden for two weeks hospitals. unable to sit up or stand Emma, 46, who lives up without passing out, close to Sefton Park in due to dangerously low South Liverpool has since blood pressure and an suffered a series of serious, incredibly high heart rate debilitating medical that the journey for the complications, all of which ANS diagnosis began. Eventually after a three year wait, following a series of tests and consultations Emma’s medical team determined that the virus could be stemmed back to the development of her Lyme Disease, which has devastating consequences on your immune system. Emma, whose Twitter account @JustMissEmma chronicles the journey so far #DiaryofaHorizontalGirl, said “I was bitten by a Tick at 31 and was bedbound by 40 and at 46 I am desperate to give myself the best chance possible to live a normal, fulfilling life and not spend the rest of my life staring at a ceiling. I am a really positive person and before this illness was the life and soul of the party. I tried to run my business from
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my bed for a while, but realized that my main and only focus has to be my rehabilitation and focusing on the best possible recovery.” Emma has now been waiting for inpatient rehab and physio for almost three years and she should have been admitted to a specialist unit last summer. Unfortunately, due to the pandemic, Emma has now been told this is more likely to be in 16-18 months and Emma is acutely aware that the longer she remains horizontal the shorter her chances of a meaningful recovery. Emma continued “My body is now so unwell and the lack of rehabilitation and being permanently horizontal is causing additional complex problems. My body is telling me I have not got 18 months to wait and mentally it is taking It’s toll too. Being horizonal is difficult enough, but being in a highly vulnerable category during a pandemic and the lack of contact with other people has some days been too much to bear and it is becoming so hard to stay positive. I live close to Sefton Park and I dream of the day I can enjoy the trees, the lake, the flowers and the beautiful surroundings I live in” Emma’s specialist has suggested a private option for her, which he feels would give her the best chance of recovery, which Emma acknowledges could be her last chance for any meaningful rehabilitation to be successful and improve her quality of Life. Emma’s last hope is a clinic in London and she has launched a Just Giving Page to fund the treatment and to purchase a stretcher. As well as the fundraiser, Emma said she is passionate about raising awareness for other people. She said: "It was a difficult decision to launch this Just Giving Page especially in the current climate with so many suffering their own hardships but I also really want to raise awareness about how this condition is not only under-researched, but under-funded for people like me, who just fall through the gaps constantly."
To donate to support Emma please use the following link https://www.justgiving. com/crowdfunding/ just-missemma?fbcl id=IwAR3MHkp9ae QA893Ajz7m8uIC_
CARE
Sandpipers in Southport provides a critical lifeline during the pandemic Revitalise have Sandpipers in Southport provides round the clock expert qualified care for disabled people and their carers in a holiday setting. been inundated with calls from people in similarly desperate situations. Here is Shaun's story, We welcomed who was registered blind Shaun to our from birth and struggled Sandpipers with crippling anxiety centre, where he and mental health issues finally had the during lockdown, and, with support, care support from Revitalise, and company to remedy finally found his happy his loneliness, drastically place. improving his mental Before the pandemic hit, Shaun was living independently. His passion for performing arts led health. He loved spending time with our other guests, with whom he has made lasting friendships. him to set up a community This was all provided theatre group, creating a in a safe environment solid network of support adhering to social for himself. However, as distancing regulations a result of COVID-19, his whilst providing as regular support network many opportunities disappeared. Because for interaction and of the crippling isolation engagement as possible. that many disabled Shaun said of his break: people and their carers “When I came here, I have experienced, was put at ease, I’ve Shaun's mental health never received such love deteriorated, and he and care. There are not desperately needed many places you can go some respite care.Since where you are so well the pandemic began, supported and reassured that everything will be ok. I’m so glad to have found Revitalise.” As the restrictions are slowly lifted, the demand for our services is increasing exponentially, particularly as the community support which would have been available before the pandemic will be slow to return. Revitalise Sandpipers must be able to continue to offer support for vulnerable people like Shaun.
By donating online via our website or by emailing fundraising@ revitalise.org.uk, you will support disabled people just like Shaun to be able to access this vital service.
DARREN LAWRENSON
The Happiness of Pursuit Top performance coach and business consultancy leader.
I am a business owner and director of Dasala Ltd a performance coaching and business consultancy business. I work across all sectors with a focus on leadership and senior management with a mind to always help individuals and teams to perform at their best. I speak across the UK and Europe as a keynote speaker to audiences of managers and leaders from business.
MAKE LIFE EASIER FOR YOURSELF
Our free time is being taken over by technology. And we buy the latest smartphone with all the gadgets to help us manage our lives and we end up getting even more stressed out over it. It’s a bit of a life conundrum ... all this great technology that’s makes everything simpler simultaneously makes things more complex. If it was just the tech stuff that made things complicated I could probably cope ... but we also have to add politics into the mix. As if everything wasn’t already complicated enough we have the neverending argument about Brexit ... and Hard Brexit, whatever that turns out to be. It has created a more complex landscape for us all. And I can’t help thinking that when we do eventually get Brexit it may just turn out that we’re all no happier than we were before. Set simple, manageable goals for yourself. Start with some really easy ones like not taking your phone to bed with you or switching it off when you have your evening meal. Have you thought about starting your working day the night before? Instead of always responding to things in the morning and get all flustered this will make it easier for you ... a simple list of what you have to do the following day gives you a feeling of control and allows the subconscious to work on things while you sleep. If you set up and stick to a routine that tends to make life less complicated. We are creatures of habit (good and bad) so maintaining good habits also helps us feel that we have some control over our lives. When did you last look at your own routine and your own personal planning?
If you want to chat about this please get in touch via
SHOPPING Liverpool One is getting ready to welcome back shoppers from 12th April when the shops reopen. They want to assure our customers that they can feel safe when shopping and are asking customers to be patient. Be Kind. Be Responsible. Here’s what they’re doing:
• Sanitising escalators and hand rails every hour
• Sanitising toilets every hour
• Toilets are located within the
Information Centre on Wall Street.
The toilets are open from 10am – 6pm Monday – Saturday, and 11am – 5pm
• Sanitising the high touch areas at least 5 times a day
• Liverpool One has identified which parts of Liverpool ONE are visited the most, from lifts to ticket stations.
They’re making sure these surfaces are sanitised at least 5 times a day.
• Hand sanitiser units are located around
• Liverpool ONE
Customers can use hand sanitiser stations for extra peace of mind.
These will be located across
Liverpool ONE, and clearly signposted.
• Toilets and hand washing facilities are free to use
Liverpool Biennial 2021 The Stomach and the Port now – 6th June
Liverpool Biennial is the UK’s largest festival of contemporary visual art. Taking over unexpected and public spaces, historic sites and art galleries, the Biennial has been transforming the city through art for over two decades. The 11th edition, The Stomach and the Port, explores notions of the body and ways of connecting with the world. 50 international artists and two collectives are taking part in this year’s Biennial. A dynamic programme of free exhibitions, performances, screenings and fringe events unfolds over the 12 weeks, shining a light on the city’s vibrant cultural scene. Liverpool Biennial: The Stomach and the Port is curated by Manuela Moscoso. The 11th edition of Liverpool Biennial was scheduled to take place in 2020 but was postponed due to the COVID-19 outbreak. Now rescheduled to 2021, the programme will be delivered as originally conceived but responsive to the new context – curated by Manuela Moscoso.
NEWS
Government confirms national events pilot to take place in Liverpool
The Government has announced details of the pilot events to be held in Liverpool, as the city follows in the footsteps of Amsterdam and Barcelona by participating in a science-led research programme to reopen the cultural and business sectors.
The Events Research Programme (ERP) will be used to provide key scientific data into how events for a range of audiences could be permitted to safely reopen as part of Step 4 of the roadmap out of lockdown, commencing no earlier than June 21.
The review will be crucial to how venues – from major sport stadiums to comedy clubs, theatres to live music spaces, wedding venues to conference centres – could operate this summer. The Liverpool pilots – a comedy gig, an outdoor cinema, a club night and a business event - will gather evidence associated with different settings and approaches to managing and mitigating transmission risk. The pilots will explore how different approaches to social distancing, ventilation and test-on-entry protocols could ease opening and maximise participation, including the use of lateral flow tests - but there will be no use of socalled ‘vaccine passports’. The Government is working closely with the University of Liverpool and Culture Liverpool on the project, which follows on from the city’s successful pilot Covid-19 testing programme for people without symptoms held last November.
Liverpool events
• Hot Water Comedy Club at M&S Bank Arena
Auditorium • The Luna Cinema on the
Waterfront (three shows) • The Good Business
Festival Presents: Change
Business for Good at
ACC Liverpool • Circus Club
The research
The programme is being overseen by the Government’s ERP Science Board with inputs from the University of Liverpool who are leading independent evaluation of the public health measures to secure the Liverpool events. The aims are to: • Develop and pilot the
logistics of event ticketing and testing, venue admittance and postevent follow-up • Assess the adequacy of data collected around events and venues for responding to potential outbreaks, and for adapting protection measures according to the background levels and patterns of spread of the virus • Measure the uptake of tickets and explore attitudes to, and acceptability of the overall ticketing, questioning and testing regime Venues participating in the programme will test specific settings to collect evidence and best practice. The final decision over whether each event can take place will be made by local officials. The evidence from the events will be shared across the event economy nationwide, so that venues can prepare to accommodate fuller audiences.
Booking a ticket
Decisions of the ticketing arrangements will be announced in the near future, at which point people from across Liverpool City Region will be able to apply. If an event does not take place, ticketholders will get a full refund and the cost will be covered by the Government.
Liverpool’s top beauty therapist and intimate waxing specialist predicts a record summer of post lockdown intimate grooming with men leading the way for treatments.
Jackie Rose of The Treatment Rooms in
Liverpool was working in one of the first salons in the country to introduce intimate waxing in the 1990s. She went on to set up The Treatment Rooms 21 years ago and now has almost 10,000 clients of which 20% are men. With lockdown forcing salons to close, she is anticipating a record summer of bookings, often made by partners. She said, “In the '90s all waxing treatments were very private and not advertised. Often we would do escorts and strippers and everyday folk. It was a very closed shop, no one discussed where they went or told anyone they had it nor talked about it. When I opened my salon 30 years ago I knew things had to change. I knew a lot of sportsmen needed hair removal for the sake of their sport, like swimming, triathletes and body-builders. They all shaved but when you shave you get that itch which is very irritating and often get a rash which isn't very practical, so there was obviously a market for waxing. Also people stared to realise that it lasts a lot longer and you don’t get an embarrassing itch when it grows back. So all these things helped to push people into waxing, in particular men. For the men’s intimate waxing they ask for SBC or sack, back and crack this is everything from genitals then turnover and wax across their backside and then in between their bum cheeks, it’s up close and personal but be assured we’re clean, quick and we are professional.” In 2000 as the internet hit the big time and mobile phones became more popular, 2004 the iphone and facebook, then instagram in 2010 was launched and snapchat a year later. All these things transformed the body image as now you’re only one click away from showing your body off to someone. Also people
like to talk about what treatments they have done now because grooming is big business, particular now with reality shows like Love Island and Ru Paul Drag Race. People like to see how others look We see how people are conscious of their bodies and you’re only one click away from a photo.” She added, "The trend for 2021 is still very much wax everything off but the different types of waxing that are available, we do Brazillion waxing and Hollywood for the women as this is what they ask for. When I trained, a Hollywookbikini was a landing strip and Brazilian was all the hair off. Now it’s all changed in the media and now waxing is sold as Brazilian being just a small bit left at the front of the pubic hair and the Hollywood is all off. That is what intimate waxing is all about now,. We don’t tidy up like we did in the' 90s, we make sure you cant see spiders legs when lying on the beach!” Liverpool has definitely led the way in beauty and continues to do so. I am so proud of our city, proud to be from here and work here. Liverpool people are so accommodating and not very judgemental, we accept people for who they are and who they want to be and we naturally love people and we like to help wherever possible. I think these things make a difference to why we are the leaders”
FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT AMANDA MOSS:
manda@amandamosspr.uk or call via WhatsApp 07916332469
