I know how frightening it can be to try to navigate the world outside our front door when also trying to cope with a disability. Wishing you more spoons than you can ever use today and everyday dear ones, hugs always x
Hi Honeys,
How are you today? All well I hope? Our furbaby Jade & I are doing laundry today and, while waiting for the washing machine to finish it's first cycle of the day, I thought I'd take the opportunity to share a little information about a wonderful new resource I recently discovered that I thought fellow spoonies (those who, like me, live with a chronic or long term illness) might like to know about too...
Before we get started honeys, this post might well be a good, maybe 10 minute read, I would go fetch a coffee, and maybe a cookie? and I'll meet you back here in a few minutes.... just click on the read more button below to read the rest of the post...
Welcome back 😊 Do you have your cuppa? me too ☕ Settle back, get comfy and enjoy your cuppa then dear ones 💗
Am I alone in finding the outside world at best sometimes overwhelming, and at worst quite frightening at times? My mobility is very poor now, I can only barely (on a good day) walk to the bottom of our street and have difficulty getting home again without Hubby's help. This isn't a pity party dear ones, I'm sharing because, just like many other fellow spoonies, the changes haven't happened overnight.
A disability or chronic health condition rarely shows all of its cards at all at once. They're sneaky these conditions, they take away a tiny, almost unnoticeable, piece of our abilities at a time and they do it so gradually that we accept the change and find ways to cope without even realising.
I've been battling arthritis, first inflammatory (RA) and more recently osteoarthritis in my spine, for over twenty years. Looking back I can see the goal post changes, such as being given my first walking stick/cane and stubbornly refusing to use it outside until I really had no choice, but it would be a struggle to point out all of the insidiously, tiny changes that individually led to it.
The sunflower lanyards weren't only created for those with arthritis of course. There are so many health conditions that are hidden to the world and these lanyards are intended to be a bridge between those battling hidden health conditions and those able to help.
How The Sunflower Lanyard Might Make A Difference...
Fellow Spoonies, have you ever found yourself in a situation, such as trying to pack your shopping at a checkout, and just wished the world around you would just shush a little and give you time to pack your shop, pay and maybe enough time to put your purse/wallet away before the cashier starts scanning the next shop?
Of course, it could be argued that every business should do this for every customer but in today's (too) fast paced world, time is money and the niceties (and service) of the pre-supermarket age (yes, I'm old enough... just... to remember this lol) really do seem to have been forgotten unfortunately.
You might know from reading this blog that I work retail honeys. The pace of work has certainly picked up since I started my job over ten years ago but I always make sure I do everything I can to help my customers, including allowing them that time to put their change away into their purse/wallet and to then put that away too.
A real bugbear of mine, even before I worked retail, was the incredibly irritating practice in stores of placing the receipt into a customers hand and putting the change (notes then coins) on top of it! <gnashes teeth> Even for those lucky enough not to have arthritis this is difficult. Add in the presence of hand/wrist braces/supports and it's just impossible! That doesn't happen at my checkout honeys.
I understand that living with a chronic illness gives me an insight into how difficult even simple, everyday tasks can be for fellow spoonies. This insight allows me to see when additional help might be required and also, I hope, the sensitivity not to offend when offering it. I once, I kid you not, had a shop assistant walk over to me in a store, having noticed my cane and possibly my hand supports, and said, very slowly and in a very loud voice "can I help you with anything?"
A part of me (after the event) was actually grateful that she was trying to help but a whole other, much larger part of me standing in that store at the time it was happening was completely mortified that everyone around us was staring and that she was treating me like a very small child. I handed her my basket and while she turned her back on me and headed for the checkout, I headed for the exit in tears. I'm really ashamed to admit that but in the interests of honestly, there it is.
I wasn't looking for help in that store and even if I had been, I would never have wanted anyone to attract an audience for the event! It was completely humiliating! This is where the sunflower lanyard scheme might be a game changer honeys...
If the pretty green lanyard with the sunflower pattern in the above photo is (hopefully) the key to making life a little easier with (again hopefully) less stress to cope with too then, as a spoonie and also as a sales clerk who wants to help my customers, I'll be eternally grateful.
This little lanyard could be a very subtle way for spoonies like me to ask for help on not so great days. Days when a little help might be appreciated or simply to let any nearby taller-than-me store assistants (I'm barely 5 foot tall so that's everybody lol) know that I can't reach the cereal I want on that high shelf. If I'm having a good day then I won't wear the lanyard. Simple.
The Lanyard Is Only Half A Solution...
I dearly hope that the roll-out of the sunflower lanyard is accompanied by adequate training of staff in all of the places it's adopted which so far includes airports, train stations, some cinemas and NHS Trusts as well as an increasing number of stores.
With airports having already come on-board with the training of staff to recognise the lanyards and Tesco being the latest large chain of shops (that I've heard of) to begin in-store trials of the scheme, with both Sainsburys and Argos having now it rolled out to every branch across the UK it seems to be here to stay.
At the very least the lanyard is a positive effort in the battle for inclusion faced by many suffering chronic health conditions.
A Critique Of The Lanyard Scheme..
Not everyone has been entirely positive about this new initiative though. Liz Johnson, who is a paralympic swimming champion and co-founder of The Ability People, wrote an interesting article recently in The Independent saying (quite rightly) that the onus should not be placed on those who suffer disabilities to be labelled as different.
She suggests that specially trained staff might wear identifying lanyards to show they are able to help. In an ideal world everyone, in every walk of life, would have the ability to see when others might need help but hidden disabilities are just that. Hidden.
It can be really hard to accept that you need help with everyday tasks honeys but believe me, it's even harder to ask for it, even when asking loved ones. Maybe these little sunflower lanyards might lead to staff recognising those who might need that help and might even make asking that little bit easier?
Where To Find A Lanyard...
Lanyards are available free from branches of Argos, Sainsburys and from the selected branches of Tesco who are currently trialling the Sunflower Lanyard scheme. They're also beginning to be recognised (and might even be available available from) international airports and airlines (including but not exclusively to Manchester Airport, Gatwick Airport and airlines such as British Airways, Easyjet and Virgin Atlantic) train stations, cinemas and several NHS trusts.
Please don't buy a sunflower lanyard from sellers on Ebay, Amazon or anywhere else honeys. These people are not authorised to supply them according to the Hidden Disabilities website. Companies and public authorities such as local councils, libraries etc can request them but are not supposed to charge members of the public for them. Hubby got mine (shown in this post) from a branch of Sainsburys in town.
Further Information And Useful Links...
The Hidden Disabilities Website:
The home page for the Hidden Disabilities website can be found here honeys. While this site is primarily aimed at raising awareness of the sunflower lanyard scheme to those who might offer help, such as businesses, local councils etc, there are some very useful pages.
There is a download page here where you can find information and downloadable posters such as this...
They ask that visitors to the site share these resources in order to raise awareness (as I have done with their leaflet above.)
There is a useful general information page, about the sunflower scheme, for anyone visiting who might use the lanyard which you can find here. There is also a very interesting insight into how and why the scheme was set up here on their about us page.
Other Useful Links
Tesco's page introducing the sunflower scheme can be found here with another article online here.
Tesco Visual Shopping Guide: Tesco also have a seven page visual guide to shopping in their stores, which you can find here, included on the last page of this guide is a page which can be completed with details such as the shoppers name and who should be contacted in case of an emergency.
Tesco Little Helpers Shopping List: Tesco have also developed a downloadable, printable shopping list in the form of a PDF, which you can find here, to help young carers/helpers become involved in the weekly shop.
Sainsburys have a page on their own website announcing the national roll-out of the sunflower lanyard scheme in all of their branches from 7th October of this year. You can read it here.
There is an interesting article on the North Wales Live Daily Post site about Tesco and Sainsburys both backing the lanyard scheme, which you can read here.
Gatwick Airport has a page included in their frequently asked questions for travellers who might need assistance which mentions the lanyards as well as other useful links,you can find it here.
Manchester Airport has a page too, showing their support for the scheme (they have their own personalised version of the lanyard.) They also have a Sunflower Room in terminal 1, a quiet room for travellers who need a break away from the bright lights, noise and crowds in the main terminal. You can find their page here.
There is a photograph of the Sunflower Room included in an article in the Manchester Evening News, which you can read here,
Glasgow Airport has a page for travellers who need special assistance which also mentions the lanyards, which you can see here. They also have downloadable PDF leaflets called Our Assistance For Passengers With Reduced Mobility and one called A Simple Guide When Travelling By Air which also mention the sunflower lanyard.
Heathrow Airport also has it's own page about the scheme which you can read here.
It would seem, from a quick search, that most airports have adopted the lanyard scheme honeys so if you're planning a trip it might be worth contacting the airline or airport you're going to be travelling through and requesting a lanyard.
Summing Up...
I'm hopeful that this scheme will be a success. While I understand that many will feel as Ms Johnson does that it's distasteful to be labelled, indeed I agree with her. I dislike labels of all kinds, as the old saying goes labels belong on jars not on people.
Living this spoonie life though, and I'm speaking only for myself, well, if the price I have to pay for somebody, somewhere possibly understanding why I'm slumped over my trolley, and why I might need to stay that way for a wee while, without my having to give them my own condensed version of war and peace, then I'm OK with that.
Over to you honeys, have you seen or heard about the sunflower scheme? Are you a fellow spoonie? Would you wear a lanyard? I'm planning to wear mine to work this weekend in the hopes of helping to raise awareness even a little.
So many disabilities are hidden. I always smile when (and it happens more often than you'd think) a customer at work spots my walking stick/cane folded and lying beside me and jokes that somebody's left it behind. They always seem surprised when I explain it's actually mine. Maybe I don't look at rickety as I am 😃
Till next time dear ones, I'l leave you with some lovely Scottish holly, stay warm, smile lots and hug even more, hugs always xx
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