Lisa Sherrington Boyd

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Transcript

00:00Hi, I'm Lisa Sherrington-Boyd, lots of people know me as Principal Lisa, because in 2019

00:11I found myself in a wheelchair and being diagnosed with a condition called Ankylosing spondylitis.

00:18To have that condition, it's an autoimmune disease and you have a gene called HLA-B27.

00:24My life went from normal, running around the school, to finding myself in a wheelchair and

00:30about to face four rounds of surgery to remove a cyst and abscess in my spine. I've been living

00:37with the condition ever since and it is a life of pain, but I do have a very strong mental attitude

00:45of get up, keep going, don't give in and do the work that I do, which is really important to me,

00:52which is helping families in the community. So I had to hang up my principal's hat

00:59and find a new way to work with families and so I started working in the community,

01:04on Zoom and finding ways to get around my medical condition, which is really quite debilitating at

01:12times. I think one of the challenges that I face with my condition is actually watching

01:21my family's faces when they watch me in pain. It flares up, it gets really, really bad at times

01:28and sometimes the pain is so bad that I'm screaming in agony. It's caused terrible, terrible,

01:37frightening, violent muscle cramps in my legs. Just last night, laying in bed, I couldn't sleep,

01:46I'm on the floor rolling with pain and then I have to get up and face the world, put my lipstick on

01:53and be determined and so ways around that. I work inside a jacuzzi because it's warm and hot

02:00and I do my work. I've got my little desk next to me in my blow-up jacuzzi and I keep working,

02:06but it's hard to watch your disease play out in your family's eyes as they watch you become

02:13less mobile or at times I'm in a wheelchair and they have to push me.

02:18I think that's probably the hardest part. So in 2019, when I had to give up my job as a

02:24nursery school principal, I had 180 children in a nursery and I was trying to work in a wheelchair

02:33and I thought that's it, that's my career over, I'm done and all I've ever wanted to do is to help

02:39families. So I started potty training actually to start with because we were in lockdown and lots

02:44of families were potty training so I became the potty training queen. So I started potty training

02:49families all over the world on Zoom and I loved it, but from there I then developed more into

02:58community work and I set up my little brand which is called Happy Families and I run community

03:06meetings, so free meetings for happy families to get together, to learn, to actually get practical

03:14help with raising babies and toddlers. So you know, nappies, from nappies to milk to weaning to sleep,

03:24everything a family needs and I have a goal and a dream to set up a community centre where families

03:31can go if they need help and support, that is my goal and that's what drives me every day.