This is the second guest blog post to mark National Carers Week. This entry is written by my friend and support worker Fran.

I first met Touretteshero years ago through Leftwing Idiot, before she’d uncovered the secret powers of Tourettes.…

This is the first of seven guest posts to mark National Carers Week. This entry is written by Leftwing Idiot.

I first met Touretteshero in 2000, long before her tics were obvious to anyone but herself and her family. Since then we’ve worked together on various projects supporting disabled children’s right to play and celebrating their creativity.…

Most people will know that today is Father’s day. What you may not know is that tomorrow is another day of celebration – it’s the start of National Carers Week. The week celebrates the work that the 6.4 million unpaid carers in the UK do.…

Two weeks ago Laura told me a secret.

This is usually a horrible mistake because my tics make it very hard for me to keep things quiet. Laura’s secret was a happy one and much to our surprise I’ve been able to keep it under wraps.…

I got home late from a meeting this evening. Normally I eat with Poppy and Leftwing Idiot or with my night-time support worker. But because I was back late, everyone had already eaten. Poppy offered to make me some dinner but I was keen to try and do it myself.…

At work this afternoon I covered for my colleague Kyle during his lunch break. This involved hanging out with a twelve-year-old boy with autism.

Although he’s non-verbal (he doesn’t use words to communicate), he’s very expressive and good at letting people know what he wants.…

Earlier on I had a trivial disagreement with Leftwing Idiot on the phone. The issue itself was minor.

I was frustrated by it, but not upset or angry. Nevertheless, at the end of the conversation I told him I was going to kill myself and that I’d be “Dead in the morning.”…

Last year I wrote about seeing Mark Thomas’s stunning show Extreme Rambling at the Tricycle Theatre. I also described how the theatre manager asked me to move at the interval because someone in the audience had complained about my tics.

I ended up watching the rest of Mark’s brilliant performance through a glass window in the production box at the side of the stage, in tears.…

It’s a bank holiday and I’d been having a leisurely, slow-paced day. But this afternoon Poppy, Leftwing Idiot and I watched a film and that was far from laid back.

It was Leftwing Idiot’s choice – a 1970’s disaster movie called the The Poseidon Adventure.…

The last couple of days away with Claire and Ruth have been very relaxing. The peace and fresh air of the countryside has meant we’ve all been sleeping soundly and now, well-rested, we’re about to head back to the city.

Rather unexpectedly, the subject of sleep also came up during a ‘ticcing fit’ this afternoon.…