I Can and I Will – A poem by Grace Hill
By Grace Hill I Can and I Will I can and I willClimb that hillI might be scaredBut I will get thereWith my courage and prideAnd a guide by my sideI can and I will. I can and I willClimb that hillI fear the heightBut I'll be alrightGripping onto my caneI will push through the rainBecause I can and I will. I can and I willClimb that hillI'm frightened to fallBut I can still have it allWe all can flyIf we spread our wings and tryI can and I will. About Grace... [...]
Kissing the sky: How Kiss FM makes me feel like anything is possible
By Grace Hill What does 'no limits' mean to you? For me, it means finding something special in amongst the challenges you face. A piece of magic that makes you feel like you can achieve anything, whether that's in reality or in your dreams. If you're expecting the story of a blind girl who has climbed Mount Everest or won the Paralympics, get ready to be disappointed. Because, if I'm being brutally honest, I find it very hard to pair the concept of 'no limits' with my vision impairment because I'm scared of becoming a cliché. I don't [...]
Pushing through your limits – my return to goalball
By Jack Tomlin I recently joined Winchester Goalball team. I have loved goalball since I was 11 and was a passionate member of my school team, but when I left school, I also left goalball. I missed the sport and the friendships that came with it and this year, I knew I wanted to join a team. I got in touch with Winchester and decided to attend their next training session. My excitement soon turned to apprehension when I realised that I would have to get the train by myself, with a change at a busy station. Like [...]
Flying above the limits: My first solo trip!
By Natalia Foster If you had told 14-year-old Natalia, that in six years’ time she would be flying 3,500 miles to meet an internet friend, I think she would have stared at you with fear in her eyes and shaken her head as if to say, ‘No way.’ But, in those six years so much has changed, and I have (somehow) found myself on a transatlantic flight heading towards Toronto. As it is, this isn’t an easy thing to do; but doing something this big with a lack of sight creates a whole array of things to consider [...]
Beauty for the Visually Impaired
By Mahalia Creft My journey with makeup has been somewhat of a rocky one. As a young child, makeup seemed to be that thing that I would just never pick up or get good at. In fact, I began renouncing makeup, in the name of defiance. To learn to do makeup always seemed like such a hard feat. One of the ways in which my visual impairment affects me, is that I am unable to move my right eye outwards, so when applying makeup, I am unable to see a large portion of the right side of my face. [...]
No limits lifestyle – White water kayaking blind
By Sam Roberts Hi everyone, my name is Sam Roberts and I am a Young Ambassador for VICTA. I live what I call a 'no limits lifestyle' where I tell myself every day that there is nothing we can’t achieve, the only person that is stopping you from reaching your goals is yourself. Over the last six months I have been working hard on progressing my white water kayaking skills, with the ambition of taking on the white water of the River Dee. No limits means pushing your boundaries, reaching further than you’ve ever reached before and never [...]
Meet our new young ambassadors for 2022!
Introducing the new young ambassadors for STRIVE 2022 Each individual brings something unique and insightful to share about how they don’t let their vision impairment stop them from doing what others can and how they manage life with no limits! Meet… Monique Richards Hey, my name is Monique. I’m an intern at VICTA helping to support and coordinate the ambassador team with their articles that will be going up on the student portal. I also do volunteering for VICTA activities. I am interested in quite a variety of creative activities such as art, which [...]
New opportunity – Join the next wave of VICTA Young Ambassadors!
Each year a new group of VICTA Young Ambassadors come together to help shape STRiVE, our e-magazine aimed at you! Do you have a passion for sharing your voice and communicating with others? Do you have an editorial vision for STRiVE you're dying to share? We have dreams of more video articles, more social content and growing our bank of inspiring stories and honest voices. If you think this could be you, then we'd love to hear from you. More about the programme Our Young Ambassadors Programme is a volunteering opportunity for young adults aged 18 to [...]
STRiVE: My Internship Experience
by Ruyaiya Asim I interned as an Accessibility Advisor for the Project Box. The Project Box is a company that assists students and graduates begin their early careers with world leading accountancy firms. In my role, I helped with making the application and interview processes more accessible for visually impaired people. I did this by going through these processes as an applicant, during which I identified some aspects that could be improved to make them more accessible. Then I presented my findings to Project Box and their clients. While I go through my internship experience, I want to [...]
STRiVE: My route to employment
by George Upfield I should warn you, my route to employment is quite a long and convoluted story, so get comfy! I suppose the first time I realised where I wanted to work was not long after I started volunteering with Guide Dogs at their Regional Centre in Leamington Spa. I was 16. I sensed there was a real ‘family atmosphere’ throughout the organisation. And in addition to this, I knew that I’d need a guide dog to help me navigate when I left school for university. Somehow, I felt that I wanted to return the favour in [...]
