Stories

Being patient

  • Series
Photograph showing five vertical slices from four different portraits.
Sinéad Gleeson, Rianna Walcott, dog walker, Natasha Lipman and Jamie Hale, Camilla Greenwell. Source: Wellcome Collection. Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0).

What is it like to be a patient? How does illness affect identity and the treatment you receive? Five writers share their personal insights, and the small acts of control that can make a big difference when illness strikes.

Photograph of a young person in a motorised wheelchair outside, in front of a white washed brick wall. They are lit by a low sun which is casting long shadows against the wall.
  • Article
How hospital care fails disabled bodies

Hospitals aim to make sick people well. But if the sick person is also disabled, the unbending nature of monolithic hospital systems can easily worsen the situation. Here Jamie Hale writes from painful personal experience.

Photograph of a young woman in a blue dress with a broach sitting side-on in her wheelchair against a light blue background. She is looking off to the right of camera, face in profile.
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How my wheelchair changed my life

A young woman diagnosed with a disabling condition found her world shrank without the mobility aids she needed to get outside. Finally facing the stigma around using a wheelchair transformed her everyday life.

Photograph of a woman wearing a wooly hat, puffer coat and welly boots, standing with her back to the camera in wintery woodland setting. In her right hand she is holding a lead attached to a small black dog, also looking away from the camera. Low sunlight streaks through the trees from the left of frame.
  • Article
Trust me, I’m a patient

Artist Rachel Rowan Olive is an expert in the way her mental health condition affects her. Here she explains how it helps if doctors understand that.

Photograph of a woman outside looking to camera, sitting on a low wall in a back garden. On top of the wall is a line of five small glass lanterns. Behind her is a wooden fence and small flowerbed.
  • Article
How the mental health system fails Black people

Accessing mental healthcare as a Black woman can be a challenging experience. Rianna Walcott shares her story, alongside those of three other women, to reveal the barriers she faced.

Photographic portrait of a woman standing outside wearing a black coat and scarf looking into the distance, off to the right of camera. In the background is part of a wooden pagoda, green shrubs and the brick and windows of a building.
  • Article
The solidarity of sickness

Visiting an injured friend in hospital prompts writer Sinéad Gleeson to reflect on the instant rapport forged between compatriots in the kingdom of the sick.