Celebrating Dyspraxia

To mark the end of this year’s #DyspraxiaWeek23, Dyspraxia Youth held a very special event - ‘Celebrating Dyspraxia’, which was generously funded by PEARS.

Read all about the event from Claire, our Youth Information Officer.

On the 14^th of October, a group of young people along with the team from the Dyspraxia Foundation, Trustees and Youth Champions came together in Coventry for an afternoon where the achievements, experiences and stories of the young people invited were shared in a variety of presentations and performances.

All of the young people had come to the attention of the Dyspraxia Foundation due to achieving something special, raising awareness or showing perseverance, resilience and determination in a particular area.

The day started with a warm welcome to from our Chair of Trustees, Jonathan Levy, who had at one point himself had been one of the youngest people undertaking the role of a trustee in the country.

The first presentation was a video from Elliott, who is only 15 years old, and was actually racing at Donington Park that very afternoon. Elliott’s passion is race car driving and he wants to raise the profile of dyspraxia and driving to as many people as he can. Everyone was very impressed with his skill on the race track and we were all rooting for him to do well.

To watch the video Elliott prepared please click here.

We then heard from Beth Evans who was also talking on behalf of Jade Bruce, who due to college commitments was also unable to attend on the day. Both Beth and Jade are currently representing the Dyspraxia Foundation in the National Neurodiversity Youth Council project which is being facilitated by the ADHD Foundation. Beth spoke about the project and what the plans are for the future. If you would like to find out more or support this project please click here.

We then heard a very honest and moving presentation from Grace Millett who at 23 is about to start a Foundation Course in Music Therapy. Grace is an accomplished musician and plays a variety of instruments. We were privileged to hear her perform on the piano and sing a song she had written and composed herself. To listen to the performance on YouTube, please click here.

After Grace, we heard from Jazmyne who will be travelling over to Florida in the USA next year with her Cheerleading POM team as they are going to be competing and representing the UK - how exciting! Jaz loves music and dance and is busy learning the routine they will be performing but we were fortunate enough to get a sneaky preview! Lots of energy and lots of moves to learn, we wish her the very best of luck and will be sure to follow her exciting adventure.

Charis, one of our Dyspraxia Foundation Youth Champions, was next up to talk about her hobbies and interests, one being fencing where she has recently started competing. Fencing requires a lot of energy and co-ordination, which Charis admitted at times can be a challenge but she has continued to go to training and shows real determination to master the techniques involved. Charis invited Jaz up to have a go and luckily no-one got injured but a few ceiling lights took a knock or two!

Alfie was next to perform and we were so lucky to hear him play his violin - the piece that he chose to play for us was the very moving and touching theme from Schindlers List by John Williams. Alfie has just begun his Conservatoire at the Royal Academy of Music and we wish him all the very best with this . To hear Alfie play please click here to go to our YouTube channel.

Xanthe then gave us a very funny and truthful account of her diagnosis story and her work as a broadcaster and DJ, as well as her research on dyspraxia that became a BBC Radio 1 documentary. Her message was positive and inspiring and called on people to be kind and to not be so hard on yourself. You can read the article here.

We then heard from Ellie who was diagnoses with dyspraxia at a very early age and throughout her life has raised awareness in various ways. Now at 23, Ellie works as an Occupational Therapist within the Mental Health sector. Her other love is acting and directing. Ellie has performed in variety of styles but she performed a monologue she had written herself for the Celebrating Dyspraxia event called ‘I think I was a slug in a past life’.

We finished the event by listening to a fantastic song called MOVING by Hannah, which was written about her experience of living with dyspraxia. You can listen too by finding her on Instagram at: @hannah.murphy.andhersongs

It was a fabulous day and so lovely to be able to get together and celebrate the positives of dyspraxia. We very much hope to be able to do something like this again in the future, so keep an eye on our website for upcoming details.

We want to thank all the young people who contributed to making this event a really inspiring and positive day and for sharing their stories and performing for us.

If you have a story to share please get in touch with us as we would love to hear from you - contact Claire at .