A Ripon woman who believed she was “broken”, but went on to graduate from university after being diagnosed with dyspraxia, has launched a not-for-profit company to help others who may share the condition.
Carol Turnbull set up Chrysalis Dyspraxia Awareness last year with a view to providing one-to-one support for people pre- or post-diagnosis and helping them to understand their potential.
She has also given a talk to a government department and hopes to expand this side of the business, speaking to companies and organisations about neurodivergency and its workplace implications.
Dyspraxia is a condition affecting physical co-ordination and causes children to perform less well than expected in daily activities for their age, and appear to move clumsily.
How people make plans and decisions, organise their lives and regulate their emotions may also be affected. The condition is closely associated with dyslexia, autism, ADHD, and dyscalculia.
Carol Turnbull
Carol was 47 before she was diagnosed with the condition, but says she had always known there was something wrong.
“I had a life of thinking I was broken; I could feel something wasn’t right,” she says.
“As a child, I was always looked on as different and was picked on a lot. I always wondered why people didn’t like me, and that lasted right through till adulthood.”
After more than 30 years working in the care industry, Carol happened to take her son to an open evening at York College, but ended up herself enrolling on an access course. That led to her taking a psychology degree at Leeds Beckett University, where she was first diagnosed.
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She says:
“It changed my life. Learning about myself and how I function neurologically and socially has greatly improved my confidence and this directly contributed to the development of Chrysalis.”
Now, she wants to pass on that knowledge, giving others the support that she missed out on. Contact can be made via her website here. She says:
“A lot of people with dyspraxia pigeonhole themselves, and it can feel quite disabling if people around you don’t know why you are the way you are if you yourself don’t know why.
“Giving others this power and supporting them to understand themselves and their dyspraxia better can open up the world to so many people who may feel their wants and desires are beyond their capabilities. This is something I am passionate about. I strongly believe that, given the right support, people can achieve absolutely anything!”