Articles

OK so lately things have been going really well , in terms of articles .I orginally earlier this year did an updated story for GOSH teens first for health website , and soon after was contacted by the GOSH team asking if they could feature me and my story on both Great Ormond Streets social media accounts such as Facebook and Twitter , as well as featuring me and my story on their very own blog,Lifeline.This for me was a huge deal for GOSH to want to feature me and my story , as you may know know by now GOSH is very special to me and honestly means a lot and they are like my second home and family.There honestly is nothing I wouldn’t do for them. Anyway so yeah for me to be feature on their blog was HUGE for me.

 

 

Then a couple of weeks back I then got contacted again by GOSH asking if this time they could feature me and my story in their newsletter , which has 2 age ranges 1 for adults and one for young people , and asked if I would mind sharing my story in the young people’s version of Members Matters.Which again I was amazed by and of course more than willing to do, A little while into the article , which the majority of the information came from my previous articles and stories for them ,As well as from my blog.As Mark who contacted me about this opportunity reads my blog ,which that itself is amazing. Anyway later on into the article Mark asked if they could talk about some of my bullying experiences in the article , as it something a lot of young people and GOSH patients deal with , so of course I was more than happy to open up and to speak out about the bullying and how I overcame it.Again further into the article someone else from the team contacted me saying that they are updating the teens section of the website and asked if they could use my story and photo on their landing page.Meaning that when you click into the teens stories section it will come up with my photo and story , which that is just incredible to be featured on the teens section of the website.Literally it all means more than I can put into words it’s just amazingly incredible.

 

Anyway when this article was near completion after regular backwards and forwards of emails, Mark then popped another HUGE question and asked if they could not only feature my story in the article but…. also use my photo on the FRONT COVER .I was not in a million years expecting to get the cover as well , but that is the cherry on the cake, tip of the iceberg for me .I mean if everything hasn’t been amazing enough that just went above and beyond and topped it by like a million percent. So that then involved me and dad having a photo shoot in various parts of the house trying to capture some great pictures for  the front cover , In the end I sent a selection of about 4-5 photos over to Mark and let him choose which one he thought would work best.

 

I got the final draft and copy of the entire newsletter sent over to me last night and I have to say I’m so excited as the article is perfect is amazing I couldn’t fault it in the slightest and it looks amazing , although I still can’t get over , nor has it sunk in that I’m on the cover and I don’t think it will until the actual copy arrives on my door mat. It’s being sent of for print fairly soon they are literally just waiting for one final article to be completed before it’s sent off for print so I can’t imagine it will be long until the autumn issue of Members Matters is out.I will get my dad to scan the article and cover at work so that I can post on here and on my Facebook page.

 

Also whilst this was going on our local paper posted on Facebook about how they are running a pride of our town campaign (I’m not naming the town as it’s such a small town) and was asking if anyone knew of anyone who was an inspiration or does good for the town or that deserves recognising kind of thing  , and my mum bless her commented on their status saying ” My daughter writes blogs on bullying and Great Ormond Street hospital , to help others using her experience” Which was so sweet of her and so yeah I’ve been having conversations with a reporter from our local paper and have finally arranged for a phone interview and photo shoot to take place at some point today , ready for next Wednesday’s paper.It was originally supposed to be in today’s paper but due to my work schedule it didn’t work out for the interview or photo shoot , so we both decided for it to be put off by a week .So yes lots of exciting things to come 🙂 I will again , with this article get my dad to scan it at work and will then post on here and my Facebook page , so make sure your subscribed to my blog and following my Facebook page :).

 

 

So yeah there’s been a lot going on recently ,but I’m not complaining in the slightest as it’s amazing to be asked to do these articles and stories as it’s just an amazing way to reach others with Microtia, or going through bullying or generally in similar situations , or even the general public just to educate them on ,my conditions and how people are different etc.It’s also amazing for raising the vital awareness for GOSH, Bullying as I feel that is something that is an ongoing problem especially among

young people and needs to stop , and their does need to be more awareness out there of the effects it has.As well as raising vital awareness for my conditions .People may think I do this just for attention for myself but that’s not true I just want to help others and to raise awareness , and hopefully in the process get other people to speak up and speak out about their experiences with bullying and their differences etc, as it helps others to know they really are not alone.

 

Microtia UK Charity Project

Heyya everyone so very exciting stuff Liz Jones founder and creator of the Microtia Mingle Facebook page along with Ali Daniels and Hana Thalova also from the Microtia Mingle UK Facebook page announced that they are in the process of creating the first UK-based Microtia charity which of course I find to be a very exciting thing as it will bring a lot more awareness to microtia and is a truly great thing to be setting up.I of course really wanted to take part and do something to help out with the charity and set up of it as well Microtia is something very close to my heart that I’m very passionate about and had thought of setting my own charity up for Microtia awareness but I’m glad these 3 lovely ladies are doing it as I don’t think I’d know where to start or be able to be able to do it on my own .

Anyway so I volunteered my services to Liz,Ali and Hana with the charity and they have said they would love my help and that there is room for me to be involved and to take part and help out .Liz messaged me on Facebook and said that the three of them really loved my little project I set up which I named “The wall of Little ears” 

which featured pictures of people of all ages with Microtia from all aspects from BAHA’s, reconstruction,prosthetic, and little ears .Liz asked if I would create something similar for the charity’s website which will be displayed at the top of the charity website and have asked if I can make them on a moving banner .Which of course I’m up for doing that and  contributing to the charity .I have no idea how to create moving photo banners for websites , but it is a challenge that I’m willing to do and figure out.

Now this is where I need your help for the project ,If you or your child or anyone you know has microtia and you would be willing for yourself or for them to take part in this project and be featured on the charity website photo banner then please  could you email me the photo(s) you would like to be used / featured on the moving photo banner for the charity website to : bethan_harvey@live.co.uk with the subject heading : Microtia charity photo banner

thanks so much I look forward to receiving your photos 🙂

Microtia Support Pages

So as usual I was sitting on Facebook doing the usual stuff updating my status on how college was going and how much I was really enjoying it and what I’d been up to and talking to people about how things where going for them at their colleges and sixth forms and that kind of thing and in the past I’d tried Facebook microtia just to see if there were any support groups or pages on microtia or anything like that which there never had been which kinda sucked but on this particular day something told me to just have a little search on Facebook to see if I could find anything to do with microtia on Facebook as I really wanted to get into contact with other people with microtia and just see how their experiences were and you know that kinda thing and to be able to talk to other people like me and if I could I’d like to try to help them if they were going through the same or similar things as I was and I hoped that they would be able to offer me some help and support for when I needed it the most .I wasn’t worried about liking pages like this now as everyone in my college group knew about my ear and my hearing and completely respected me for it and said how they hadn’t noticed or known anything was wrong with my ear and that kind of thing which was really encouraging and sweet and I will admit that having that support from those in my tutor group at college did help me to really settle into college life and not worry about things to do with my ear anywhere near as much or worry about being bullied or anything and yeah it helped me to settle in but however I just felt if there was more support or help out there that could help me to be ok about who I was and the way I was then of course I was going to go looking for that help and that was when I came across a Facebook group called microita and atresia support group so of course I instantly liked the page and started getting talking away on there and soon was really happy and using the support pages near enough every day and I even then eventually found more support groups such as microtia mingle UK ,Microtia teens and young adults, Microtia and a few others and I just wanted to write this blog to say you are not alone there are people out there who are going through the same or similar things as you may well be going through and they are willing to help and listen so if you are feeling alone or as though you want or need some support or advise or anythign at all even if it is just someone to talk to then these pages are a brilliant place to turn to the links to the pages are :

https://www.facebook.com/groups/123265151064942/ – Microtia Mingle UK

https://www.facebook.com/groups/2266078643/ – Microtia

https://www.facebook.com/groups/MicrotiaTeenAdult/?fref=ts adults and teens with Microtia

https://www.facebook.com/groups/192049174175728/?ref=ts&fref=ts Microtia teens and young adults UK

https://www.facebook.com/microtiaandatresiauk?fref=ts -Microtia and atresia UK

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Microtia-and-Atresia-Support-Group/118851728152174?fref=ts – Microtia and atresia support group

Youtube Channel

So you most likely have guessed from the blog title that I have actually set up a youtube channel to do vlogs (video blogging) about my medical conditions and to raise awareness of them purely because I felt now was the right time to do this and well I was sick of feeling alone when actually there were others like me out there and I didn’t want anyone else to have to go through what I’d gone through nor did I want anyone to feel alone in this world with their microtia, hemifacial microsomia or what other conditions they had becausre there others out there who are going through the same thing and yeah I saw a few other great ormond street paitents on youtube talking about their conditions and their expirences at great ormond street hospital , who really inspired me to also set a channel up those people who I saw on youtube who really inspired me to set my own channel up were Casey, Jade Lucas and Ella Gauntlet and yeah Casey and Jade especially helped me to set my channel up as I was having difficulty uploading videos and getting views on my channel and yeah so they did shoutouts in their videos for me to get some of their viewers to come check my channel out and stuff which was really sweet of them and yeah they kinda took me under their wings a bit and excepted me for who I am and I really appreciated that and yeah it was nice to be in contact over social media with people like them 🙂 .When I set my channel up I was soo excited about it to be honest to finally be doing something to help others out there either like me who have the same conditions or very similar ones or just in general educating about my conditions and yeah trying to build some awareness for them and yeah all I kept doing after posting my first video was keep checking the view number like literally every 2-3 minutes incase it had drastically gone up or I had missed something or something had happened in those two minutes and I was like this for a good few weeks after setting my channel up and after posting videos of me talking about my conditions (as well as a good few about Olly Murs) please feel free to view my channel ,watch my videos, subscribe,leave me comments, leave me likes and yeah 🙂

 

http://www.youtube.com/user/eeyorebabe1?feature=mhee – link to my youtube channel 🙂

Bullying Of Another Kind…

Well if you’d thought I’d had enough bullying to last a life time then I’m sorry to say but your wrong although I wish you were right ,sadly there was yet more bullying to come my way and well I suppose at least you could say possibly that these bullies were original :S as this was not in school bullying it was in fact an attack of cyber bullying which means bullying over the internet,text , phone etc basically I suppose you could call it indirect bullying as it’s a form of bullying done without seeing the person

 

It  all started off as a  normal evening after school when I logged into my laptop and signed into MSN and Facebook unknowingly knowing I was about to become a victim to cyber bullying and two of my friends who had never expressed and problem or issue with me before instantly popped straight up on chat on MSN and started talking to me ok fine nothing wrong there but then it began starting to type abuse to me and nasty messages and i tried to ignore it by leaving the chat but every time I did they were popping back up pulling me in for yet another round of  abuse and then after a while of me pulling myself out of the conversations they tried to do it individually so one of them would try to talk to me on my own and try to blame it on the other before saying more nasty things and roping the other one into the conversation obviously I was really upset about what was happening and couldn’t believe or understand how or why it was happening and the only thing I could think was that there accounts must have been hacked or something but sadly not it really was them and I knew in school they never said a word and I knew I had to get proof of what they were really like so the rest of the class would know so I began adding everyone from my class at school into the conversation so that they could witness it for themselves and read the messages I was being sent but even so they still couldn’t and some of them even didn’t believe it and said how it wasn’t them and there accounts must be hacked as they would never do it face to face which I admit no the pair of them would never have the back bone to ever do or say any of that to anyone’s face which was the hardest part to face I mean I’d now got used to being bullied at school but now my private life and my safe place where I could escape the bullies(home) was now being taken over by the bullies and I really didn’t know where else I could turn as usually I’d come home to escape it but now I was at home was I supposed to go to school instead as a role reversal ? well funnily enough this was exactly what dad wanted to do was print all of the conversations from them off and take them into school and give them to my tutor to read even though I actually begged him not to and said how it had nothing to do with the school and they wouldn’t or couldn’t do anything as it had happened out of school (small minor incidents not bullying had happened out of school before and I’d been told had nothing to do with the school as it happened outside of school) but I was actually pleasantly surprised when the school did deal with it and my tutor sat and read over all of the messages I was sent and was horrified by what she had read and so she actually spoke to our class the next day having a go about how she was really disappointed that there were students in the class picking on others in the class and how we had been such a close group and why was it happening and read out some of the comments including mine as I turned round and told one of the girls she was spotty as couldn’t think of any other come back and that’s what mum told me to reply as she was standing watching the messages pour through as well as this my dad actually rung one of the girls parents and had them round to show the messages to on our computer and was going to go round the other girls house but her or her sister faked to be her mum pretending to have been really ashamed of her daughter and how she would be in trouble for it but obviously she didn’t I don’t actually think either of the girls did until it was taken to my tutor to sort out and I was told if it happened again due to the content of the message it could have actually been taken to the police but we didn’t that time but if it happened again to go straight to them with it because things got so bad in those messages and yeah it was basically two against 1 the whole way through so this was an awful experience to now know my home life was being over taken by the bullies was I not safe anywhere now ?