Photograph by Mike Bell
Abbie Hills is Company Director and Talent Scout at The Dazey Hills Company. Her form of CP is left-sided hemiphlegia. She tells us her story.
On her work
I spin a lot of dials. I’m a talent agent, first and foremost. I’ve got my own talent agency. I represent actors for screen and stage. I’ve worked on set a little bit, I’ve worked in costume, I’ve been a production assistant, I’ve done a bit of art department, I’ve produced short films. More recently, I’ve also become an access coordinator, so I will go onto set to support the needs of deaf, disabled, neurodivergent talent on both sides of the camera, a kind of middleman between the individual and the production to ensure that their access needs are met so that they can go and be amazing on the job.
On growing up with CP
I have hemiplegia on my left side – the whole of my left side is affected. I do have it mildly, but I think that has presented challenges in itself because I didn’t know much about it.
I got diagnosed when I was two, and had a bit of support as a kid – I used to wear Piedro boots and stuff to help me walk, and then that was it for a while. It was only when I went into adolescence and becoming a teenager when I was a lot more active and had to be a bit more independent, I noticed how it affected me in day to day life, whether it was fatigue from trying to do sport at school or trying to help my Mum chopping a vegetable or trying to carry something upstairs while going upstairs – the stuff that you don’t really do when you’re a kid.
It made me realise, ‘Oh, actually I do have chronic pain, I do get fatigued, my balance is terrible, my coordination’s not much better.’
I didn’t have a brain scan until I was 17. That was quite eye-opening for me because, although my CP is mild, I’ve got quite a significant part of damage on my brain. It’s pretty much this whole bit back here, my cerebellum is black. That was really shocking for me and that had a mental health impact.
On changing perceptions
People have a certain stereotype in their head of what cerebral palsy looks like. I’m just trying to shift the dial on that a little bit.
All the people that I know in the CP community know that we’ve all got it totally differently. If you stuck us all in a room, you couldn’t pick out two people who are the same. People don’t know that. People assume that when you’ve got CP, you’re paraplegic or quadriplegic and that’s it. It’s not the case. I think that the most important thing is for people to be willing to understand the spectrum of what the condition is like.
On being better prepared for the future
I’m trying to broaden my connections of other people my age with CP. I know one person in in his fifties with cerebral palsy. That’s pretty much it. Everyone else in my circle, in my connections, they’re between 20 and 30, and we’re all in the same boat in that we don’t know what our future is going to look like for us.
I try and take care of myself and I’m quite serious about fitness where I can be. I can’t do a lot of exercise, but I try and do gentle walking on the treadmill, I try and eat right, I take magnesium, but I don’t know how I should be looking after my body to prevent future problems. I know that cerebral palsy is non-progressive, but I know that there can be conditions that can come because you’ve got cerebral palsy, you’re more likely to get arthritis or falling over when you’re older and things like that. And I don’t know if there’s any prevention I can take or anything I can do to be supporting myself for my future.
On what she would like to see change
I think more support for people who are over 16. If I type in cerebral palsy on Instagram, it’s videos of small children with CP, it’s splints for kids, it’s wheelchairs for kids. I just want to know where the support is for adults.
Where are our resources? Where is the community for us? There’s a real stigma and a real old-fashioned stereotype of what it looks like to get older with a disability. I think a bit more awareness for us, a bit more education on what life’s going to be like for us or what life could be like for us, but also empowering that, not sending us brochures of different aids and things to help us eat and learn. There’s an enrichment element to it, because it’s not all bleak and boring.
On her hopes for the future
It’s really important to me that I keep building my talent agency and the branding of it, which is diversity focused, not just disability, but diversity focused on the whole. Because representation in the industry is really important to me. Also, to keep building my personal network of people with CP and just doing the work and spreading awareness, and making some really good films in the meantime.