Ashford teenager Yasmin Swift's support for invisible illness

She looks the picture of health but teenager Yasmin Swift has an invisible illness and relies on a cocktail of drugs to keep her alive.

Now the plucky 19-year-old from Willesborough has made the brave decision to share her personal battles with the world. She is on a mission to increase understanding of her invisible illness after an aggressive note was left on her car accusing her of wrongly taking up a disabled parking space in Tenterden. The teenager has a rare condition, idiopathic pulmonary arterial hypertension (IPAH), which leaves her struggling for breath doing the simplest of tasks like making her own bed or washing the dishes.

When a stranger slapped the note on her car in July, threatening to report her to the authorities for misuse of the space, Yasmin was on a rare evening out visiting friends in her former home town of Tenterden. The upsetting incident led her to think about how people with invisible illnesses were treated and it was during a recent two-week spell in London's Royal Free hospital that she decided to share her experiences.

Doctors at the Royal Free were trying to stabilise her rare condition, which leads to high blood pressure in the blood vessels that supply the lungs. Left untreated it can damage the right side of the heart and cause it to fail. Yasmin will also need a lung transplant in the future.

The student of The Hair Academy in Ashford had been plagued by headaches and sickness, side effects of medication that is continuously pumped into her body through an intravenous drip to prevent clots and widen her blood vessels.

She said: "I'd been thinking about setting up an account for a while as I'd followed other people with illnesses and it makes you think your life isn't so bad.

"You don't feel so alone and people help each other even if they have different conditions."

Yasmin is open about the effects of her illness.

She said: "I'm not coping well at the moment. Just making my bed and washing up leaves me feeling so tired - and I'm breathless walking upstairs.

"I've lost my independence massively and I can't work at the moment. I loved working at the hair academy, learning a skill, listening to people's chat and having a giggle.

"Sometimes I feel angry and upset and what I'm going through does feel unfair.

"I wanted to travel the world and at my age I should be in the prime of my life."

But Yasmin - who reveals on her Instagram account that every 48 hours she spends 45 minutes preparing the drugs she needs to stay alive - never dwells on the negative and quickly returns her focus to helping others.

"One woman who was ill and didn't want to do anything told me she'd been inspired to get up and go for a walk to breathe in some fresh air after reading my post and I felt really good about that," she recalls.

Yasmin's Instagram posts can be seen on swift_yasmin Yasmin's Unseen Illness and she also has an Unseen Illness Facebook group.

In December when teenage friends are enjoying parties in the run-up to Christmas, Yasmin, a former Homewood School pupil will be spending three days at Papworth Hospital in Cambridgeshire undergoing further tests in preparation for her future lung transplant.

Yasmin explains with typical candour: "Doctors can't tell me when I will have the lung transplant but they do tell me it will be needed."


https://www.kentonline.co.uk/tenterden/news/teens-smile-hides-devastating-invisible-illness-192530/

Video on link

Anyway, this is what matters to me more that any debate here

I cannot imagine, what its like to know how it would feel. That I need both a lung and a heart transplant. At such a tender young age. Justin order that she can have a normal life, only for a few more years.

That takes courage

Not one single comment

Wow

I seriously, am in the wrong place

All the best everyone

I shall leave you with this and hope you all find common ground

I am bored of this place, as it is full of hate.

Some things are worth more, than each of us are

All the best

???????????????????

I didn't even see the damn thing!

I think the problem is that most people know at least one person who isn't genuine, this then impacts onto people who are genuine.
I know a number of people who have nothing wrong with them that would justify a disability allowance yet they have it. Some have told me they have worked enough and would be putting in for disability and get a mobility car and within 12months and they do. Doctors do not assess, a 'medical professional' whatever that is comes along and asks a set of questions, depending on your answers you get so many points either the lower or higher disability allowance, so if you know what to answer you are quids in.
When a look at all disability allowance was announced a few years ago a great number of cars and allowances were returned. These people are robbing the tax payer and worse taking resources from the genuine disabled.
So is it any wonder people get fed up with the whole thing and question people who look ok?
I'll tell you again about the woman who carried a large mobility scooter over a large embankment between the back lane of flats and the road, there were a number of us there standing open mouthed and marvelling as she 'man handled' this machine over the embankment and onto the road, (I would struggle with it and I'm quiet strong) then jumped on it and drove off.

Oh for fucks sake. So no one commented? Perhaps nobody read it. I certainly didn’t because I wasn’t online and sometime, even when I am showing as online I’m actually far away from my iPad.

This is stupid.

Or perhaps you’re just having a really bad day. In that case then, I’m sorry you feel horrible right now.

eddie wrote:Oh for fucks sake. So no one commented? Perhaps nobody read it. I certainly didn’t because I wasn’t online and sometime, even when I am showing as online I’m actually far away from my iPad.

This is stupid.

Or perhaps you’re just having a really bad day. In that case then, I’m sorry you feel horrible right now.

We all post posts that are not always answered. I think I posted one a few days ago and nobody answered it. Big deal. You don't get your gusset in a bunch over it. Talk about attention seeking.

just did.

I didn't read it because I was watching Bo Rhap at the local cinema.
Not a bad film.

Not sure it was sufficient justifiv
justification for Didge quitting, though.

I didn't see the thread, I was busy arguing with Didge on two different threads.

I wasn't even online when Dodge had his latest dummyspit and flounced off up there; after apparently abusing everyone because nobody would play with him on this particular thread...

As for the subject matter itself, I had already seen this story reported elsewhere a few weeks ago, and wouldn't have bee in a hurry to read it again, anyways..

Yes, this story has been posted here before, so perhaps people had already commented at the time. Didge said he knew the young lady personally.

http://www.newsfixboard.com/t24809-disabled-parking?highlight=disabled

I was at work when this thread was started.

Well hopefully Didge will realise it's not personal when a thread gets ignored.

It is a bit disappointing if you post a topic you find really interesting and no one responds, but thats forum life, some topics catch on others dont, I bet us posters who start lots of threads have many a one that isn't as interesting to others as it is to them...so what...thats life.

Also, I know it's stating the obvious but many topics have already been done to death, which is one of the reasons I think debate forums might be waning in interest for many.

Guest wrote:She looks the picture of health but teenager Yasmin Swift has an invisible illness and relies on a cocktail of drugs to keep her alive.

Now the plucky 19-year-old from Willesborough has made the brave decision to share her personal battles with the world. She is on a mission to increase understanding of her invisible illness after an aggressive note was left on her car accusing her of wrongly taking up a disabled parking space in Tenterden. The teenager has a rare condition, idiopathic pulmonary arterial hypertension (IPAH), which leaves her struggling for breath doing the simplest of tasks like making her own bed or washing the dishes.

When a stranger slapped the note on her car in July, threatening to report her to the authorities for misuse of the space, Yasmin was on a rare evening out visiting friends in her former home town of Tenterden. The upsetting incident led her to think about how people with invisible illnesses were treated and it was during a recent two-week spell in London's Royal Free hospital that she decided to share her experiences.

Doctors at the Royal Free were trying to stabilise her rare condition, which leads to high blood pressure in the blood vessels that supply the lungs. Left untreated it can damage the right side of the heart and cause it to fail. Yasmin will also need a lung transplant in the future.

The student of The Hair Academy in Ashford had been plagued by headaches and sickness, side effects of medication that is continuously pumped into her body through an intravenous drip to prevent clots and widen her blood vessels.

She said: "I'd been thinking about setting up an account for a while as I'd followed other people with illnesses and it makes you think your life isn't so bad.

"You don't feel so alone and people help each other even if they have different conditions."

Yasmin is open about the effects of her illness.

She said: "I'm not coping well at the moment. Just making my bed and washing up leaves me feeling so tired - and I'm breathless walking upstairs.

"I've lost my independence massively and I can't work at the moment. I loved working at the hair academy, learning a skill, listening to people's chat and having a giggle.

"Sometimes I feel angry and upset and what I'm going through does feel unfair.

"I wanted to travel the world and at my age I should be in the prime of my life."

But Yasmin - who reveals on her Instagram account that every 48 hours she spends 45 minutes preparing the drugs she needs to stay alive - never dwells on the negative and quickly returns her focus to helping others.

"One woman who was ill and didn't want to do anything told me she'd been inspired to get up and go for a walk to breathe in some fresh air after reading my post and I felt really good about that," she recalls.

Yasmin's Instagram posts can be seen on swift_yasmin Yasmin's Unseen Illness and she also has an Unseen Illness Facebook group.

In December when teenage friends are enjoying parties in the run-up to Christmas, Yasmin, a former Homewood School pupil will be spending three days at Papworth Hospital in Cambridgeshire undergoing further tests in preparation for her future lung transplant.

Yasmin explains with typical candour: "Doctors can't tell me when I will have the lung transplant but they do tell me it will be needed."


https://www.kentonline.co.uk/tenterden/news/teens-smile-hides-devastating-invisible-illness-192530/

Video on link

Hopefully when she has a lung transplant and further treatment her quality of life will improve.
She is helping people by discussing her illness, other people with similar conditions will be heartened by her sharing with them.
As for strangers making judgments about where she should or shouldnt park....sadly the world is full of mean spirited busy bodies, not everyone who is ill looks like they are on deaths door, and good for Yasmin for managing to look pretty, healthy and fit....she is an inspiration.

Hence why she is publishing videos to make people aware

Thank you for your kind words Syl

Phildidge wrote:Hence why she is publishing videos to make people aware

Thank you for your kind words Syl

The internet can be used to spread many bad things, it can also be used to help others, and this girl is indeed helping others by educating people about an illness many people know little about...so good on her for not allowing her disability to rule her life.

Syl wrote:

Phildidge wrote:Hence why she is publishing videos to make people aware

Thank you for your kind words Syl

The internet can be used to spread many bad things, it can also be used to help others, and this girl is indeed helping others by educating people about an illness many people know little about...so good on her for not allowing her disability to rule her life.

Indeed, as awareness is the key to helping people understanding hidden illnesses Syl

Phildidge wrote:

Syl wrote:

The internet can be used to spread many bad things, it can also be used to help others, and this girl is indeed helping others by educating people about an illness many people know little about...so good on her for not allowing her disability to rule her life.

Indeed, as awareness is the key to helping people understanding hidden illnesses Syl

It's also helping her by sharing.
I should think one of the worst things of suffering a debilitating condition is the loneliness of it. For eg I know cancer sufferers , especially in the past, have not been able to share their experiences with others.
Talking, and listening to people who are maybe going through similar not only helps the listener it helps the person who is sharing too.

Syl wrote:

Phildidge wrote:

Indeed, as awareness is the key to helping people understanding hidden illnesses Syl

It's also helping her by sharing.
I should think one of the worst things of suffering a debilitating condition is the loneliness of it. For eg I know  cancer sufferers , especially in the past, have not been able to share their experiences with others.
Talking, and listening to people who are maybe going through similar not only helps the listener it helps the person who is sharing too.

Indeed, that many people are suffereing and if people are reaching out to them, it offers great comfort to many people suffering.

Have to go Syl, so have a great day

x

You too....off out myself.
x

My brave little friend. She had months left to live and now her life has been extended by the gift of someone else's lungs. There is a video, but have no idea how post this from facebook here

The day she met the Queen

It's incredible what modern medical science can do.....hopefully she can have a reasonable quality of life now. I wish her well. It always grieves me to see such youngsters with these horrible problems.

Victorismyhero wrote:It's incredible what modern medical science can do.....hopefully she can have a reasonable quality of life now. I wish her well. It always grieves me to see such youngsters with these horrible problems.

Have a green mate