Ruthanne Miller has diplegic Cerebral Palsy, and she is also a woman of colour. She tells us how these two parts of her identity affect her as she navigates her life.
“I’ve got cerebral palsy, diplegia, so it mainly affects my legs – I can walk, but with difficulty. I try to maintain my mobility, albeit that sometimes I’m in pain. I’m 26 now, and I’ve noticed more muscle pain than before.
Even in school, I couldn’t participate in half of the PE lessons because it was too difficult. I had to do my exercises separately on a mat.
If I go to the doctor’s or to any medical professional, I feel like they don’t believe me. I think, in their eyes, black people see pain in a different way. Because I’m able to walk, they’re probably thinking, ‘she’s putting it on all of a sudden, because she’s in the doctor’s’.
So, now I record it when I’m in pain, so I can literally show them, ‘this is when and where I’m in pain’ and they can take it more seriously.
For me to do anything, it takes a level of energy which is two to three times more than it would be for someone else. I have to pace myself and even doing that, sometimes I get angry with myself because I think, no, you can do that. And there’s a feeling that as a black woman, you should be able to do that anyway. I think that’s a perception that’s often held about black people.
What would I say to other black people, young or otherwise, who have cerebral palsy? I would say, whatever you want to do, just go and do it. Yes, it might be hard, but still, you can do it.”