Teenagers are normally anxious about passing their exams but imagine if you were diagnosed with a debilitating illness during your A-Level studies. Last year, Heather Purdham from Essex, United Kingdom, was informed by doctors that she had to give up art because she has hypermobility syndrome.
A devastating diagnosis
Last December Heather was diagnosed with hypermobility syndrome, a condition which loosens joints and makes normal actions such as holding a pen or a brush very painful. But Heather had suspicions something was very wrong with her health during the summer:
“I had first noticed a problem through my GCSEs when I was writing a lot more,” Heather says, “’I got to my AS levels last year and I couldn’t keep up any more — it was too painful and I had to stop.”
Doctors first thought she had carpal tunnel syndrome from the excessive writing. But further medical examination confirmed that Heather has hypermobility syndrome. Her condition affects all of the joints in her body and especially in her hands and ankles.
A picture of persistence
At first Heather was very upset by the doctor’s diagnosis, as she recalls, “I was sitting in my art lesson and I was crying, it was really embarrassing.”
But Heather’s art teacher was on hand to give her some words of encouragement:
“My art teacher took me to one side and said ‘if you want, you don’t have to do this subject, but you’re talented and I’m sure you can find a way around it’.”
In the beginning, Heather tried experimenting by gripping a brush between her toes. Eventually as the summer progressed, she tried using her just her fingers and her feet before settling on holding a paintbrush in her mouth:
“As soon as I realised I could do it with the dabs, I thought it looked really good and I don’t have to drop art and I was overjoyed!” Heather recalls her big victory, “ It was slow work but it seemed to get results.”
An inspiration to her teachers and fellow students
Heather’s resolve and persistence has won high marks from one of the teachers at her school. Peter Vinten, art teacher at Westcliff High School for Girls, said the painting Heather did for her A-levels had made her friends awestruck. Vinten also praised Heather as “a tremendous inspiration”. As well as art, Heather also studied psychology, geography and religious education. She did her written papers using a computer and got four A grades, two of them were distinctions!
Heather will study psychology at the University of York and plans to continue with her art. When asked to comment about overcoming her condition she says with characteristic bravery:
“Just because you have a disability doesn’t mean you have to stop doing something…”I think there are always ways you can adapt, even if it is not the conventional way to do things.”
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