Ciara's Pink Sparkle Podcast!

This episode of my podcast is very special. I chatted with Gareth and John from the Dublin Welsh Male Voice Choir.They told me all about how the choir formed many years ago and we chatted about some of their past concerts and we chatted about some of the songs that they perform in their concerts. We also paid a lovely tribute to my uncle who was a long standing member of the choir. If you would like to know more about the choir, please go and check out their website. They are looking for new members too!https://dublinwelsh.com/

I recently chatted with one of our charity Mencap Myth Busters who is called Michael Beynon. He has run in the London Marathon to help raise money and awareness for Mencap a few times, He is also a Rotarian and has achieved a lot of amazing things in his life and he has has a learning disability. Also, His step Dad Stephen will be taking on a big fundraising challenge to help raise money for Mencap soon, so please donate if you can by going to this link!https://www.justgiving.com/page/stephen-walker-1?utm_campaign=lc_frp_share_transaction_fundraiser_page_launched&utm_content=28d2e252-aebc-4665-a133-9b0658fe0723&utm_medium=email&utm_source=postoffice&utm_term=1739306976482

My chat with Junior Doctor Grace Spence Green. She became a person with a disability in 2018 after she was involved in an accident. She has written a fab new book called To Exist As I Am and you can buy it online from book stores like Waterstones!https://www.waterstones.com/book/to-exist-as-i-am/grace-spence-green//9781800814486?utm_source=awin&awaid=3787&gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=22647730732&gclid=CjwKCAjwgb_CBhBMEiwA0p3oODI0UTAVGWF2JV27AWVcXkPDEApmsWcYsryYsSE7XGSxvtbElbanORoCEbcQAvD_BwE

I chatted with Emma Steel from Every Cherry Publishing. She created an imprint that will help children with a disability to access reading and story books. I got involved with Every Cherry Publishing last year as they invited me to do an audio voice over for their version of my fave all time children's story, The Wizard of Oz and I got to read and record and channel ' My inner Dorothy! ' website : https://www.everycherry.com/

I chatted with my friend Mark Cutter aka The Man in the Purple Hat about our own lived experiences of having a disability, the differences between learning difficulty and learning disability, the medical model of learning disability & the social model of disability and what change we can make when we lobby for change. We also talked about our own work careers and what we do now and chatted about my Podcast too!

For this episode of my Podcast, I am joined for a chat by my lovely friend and actress Sally Phillips. She is currently starring in a wonderful new BBC Sitcom show called Austin which you can now watch on BBC I-Player! We chatted about the recent final Bridget Jones Movie Mad About the Boy & her character Shazza. We also chatted about the world of learning disability and why we need to see more people with a learning disability being seen positively in the media like TV and film & she talked about her own experience of becoming a mother to her son Olly who has Downs Syndrome and what he has achieved!

I chatted to Steve Lillywhite CBE who is a British Music Producer about his career working in the music industry as a music producer. He told me about when he worked with u2 on their singles and albums and how he got to work with other bands like The Rolling stones. I also told him about why I started my Podcast!

For this episode, I chatted with my lovely friend Hayley Newman & her wonderful daughter Natty who has Downs Syndrome. They chatted with me about their relationship as mum and daughter, we chatted about how important it is to see people with a disabiliy in the media like Natty and myself. We also talked about our favourite ice-cream flavours, chatted about the film Frozen and our favorite colours!

I chatted with Josh all about his career as a neurodivergent Screen Writer and abut how TV shows and dramas should hire more actors in front of the camera and behind the camera. We also talked about Disability and the importance of Representation!

I chatted with Consultant Learning Disability Nurse Jim Blair about the importance of the role that learning disability nurses do when they are supporting people with a learning disability with their healthcare in hospitals. We chatted about hospital passports & being on the learning disability register with your GP and why it's important for people with a learning disability to be on it. We also chatted about our Patron roles with the amazing inclusive dance charity Dance Syndrome.