Audrey’s Blog on living well with disability and breast cancer

If there has been a theme for this week, it would be love. It started and ended for me with discussions on how to improve care and support for those in need of health and social care. And trying to capture what is the essence of creating a quality approach. Now I could talk of asset based, person-centred, responsive, flexible, respectful, partnership based but those kind of words roll of the tongue and don't always connect us with our humanity. We collect those words to get closer to that seemingly indefinable essence of what enables wellbeing and change in relationship with others. We wonder if its ok to provide comfort in the moment with a hug, to describe someone we care for in terms of friendship, to put another's needs before our own, even if we're not related because someone has told us its unprofessional.   And yet we know in our own hearts that we want those who care for and support us to meet us as people, as equals and not hidden behind the shi

Proudly holding my Women for Independence Mug and stroking Cara. What a few days this has been in my homeland. As most of you will know, I supported Yes for a chance to create a better form of social justice in our land, in particular one that ensured every voice counted. Well time will tell what the promise of new powers will deliver and if that will ensure we can build a more just and equal society. But we have shone a light on democracy and illustrated that social movements can emerge and create change.  Recently a friend said that social movements rarely create the thing they set out to do but they do create change. Let's hope so. I have loved being part of this social movement and I will continue to do all I can for more socially just, equal and importantly to me, heartful community in all my life and work. I'm especially fortunate to have the opportunity to do that. It's been an honour to meet so many  passionate people dedicated to improving things for every

Recently I had a reunion with my fellow nursing students from the University of Edinburgh. It was a fabulous weekend connecting with people who were such an important part of my life at one stage. Some have stayed in it of course but how special it was to meet again  and look back at our younger selves as so many memories were awakened.  How did we feel the course had affected our lives, we wondered? I recalled that a former student had told us, the degree in nursing gave her skills for life. I remember thinking with a youthful arrogance, really, is that all?Of course it was nt all but now I know what a fundamental gift that was. Our Professor was the unique Professor Annie Altschul. She was a mental health nurse by background, an Austrian who had left her homeland when fascism was plowing its devastating furrow. Her special research interest was the therapeutic relationship. We recalled her words to us: that the best tool we had as nurses, was ourselves. An overwhelming thought when