In April 2026, I delivered a talk at Scotland’s first sober bar, SOBR on Chronic Illness x Loneliness. It was the perfect place to speak in depth about the impact that chronic or terminal illness can have.
We all acknowledge it can be incredibly isolating for many reasons, and grief can permeate every aspect of your life in many different ways. Towards the end of my talk, I highlight how I navigated the Spindly Windy path and how there are ways through it.
And as much as we’d like a magic wand to make it all go away, its fire can flicker something else in you.
Seemingly random (but it’s not, I promise), I urge you to watch the movie I Swear– it is incredibly moving and heartwarming. It is about a Scottish boy who suffers from Tourette’s syndrome, and at the time he first experienced symptoms in his teens, not much was known about the condition.
So of course he experienced a lot of bullying, isolation, loneliness and medical gaslighting. And yet as he grows older, he learns more about himself and does his best anyway. Then he goes on to become an advocate to cultivate a more supportive, inclusive community for those with Tourette’s. Through it all, there’s sadness, comedy and humanity in it all.
There’s also Florrie Bark who is a young girl suffering from cancer and leukaemia and yet has just recently received her lung transplant! She is an extraordinary young girl who has won the hearts of thousands and millions in the world with her unstoppable spirit, cackling laugh, and sweetest girl you’ll ever meet.
This isn’t to say you have to become someone “extraordinary” to be worth good health, but I hope that you can take solace in the stories that know too well the depth of your suffering.
Because we can always write another chapter.
Lungevity 