Episode 17 - Ability through disability

Ayat Tahir joins us in conversation to talk about her experiences in having a child with a rare genetic non-hereditary condition called Williams Syndrome affecting chromosome 7. 

Dr Safraz Jeraj works professionally in the NHS as a clinical psychologist in the areas of depression, anxiety and intersection between chronic physical health conditions and mental health specialising in pain. He also works as a senior lecturer in the department of psychology in the university of Surrey. Dr Safraz has worked in the muslim community as a facilitator, mediator and leader for 15 years and is particularly interested in self development and wellbeing. 

Sabiha Gulamhussein is a parent with a SEN child who talks us through her experiences in parenting and thoughts on how to make the community more accessible to SEN families. 

Hawra is a computing specialist and passionate about cultivating a generation of students skilled in using computational thinking to solve everyday problems. She is an advocate of women in tech, and an international speaker on achieving gender parity and inclusion in the field of technology. Her educational background is in Computer Science, Computing education, and cyberbullying research. 

Dr Yasmin Mohsin, is a Registrar in Psychiatry and is now doing her training to specialise in working with Children and Adolescents. She works for the NHS and aims to make her practice more therapeutically informed by additionally undertaking courses in different therapies. Dr Yasmin is also interested in Islamic principles relating to recovery and how care can be more tailor made to Muslim communities.

Bilal Naqvi is a project management professional within the pharmaceutical & clinical trials industry. Today he is on this podcast as a mental health advocate and to raise awareness and educate our viewers about a condition called obsessive compulsive disorder. More specifically to talk about my sister Masooma, who suffers from severe OCD and the GoFundMe campaign he has started to raise funds for her private treatment.

Dr Yasmin Al-Asady is a child and adolescent psychiatrist who works with children with various disabilities.  On this episode we talk through stigma, labelling, inclusion and accessibility in our communities. 

Sajjad Megjee is a paralympic sportsmen with a hobby and passion in cycling, he was born with talipes equinovarus, otherwise known as clubfoot and is currently training for the Paralympics. 

Sister Dr Mahrukh Zaidi has come all the way from Delhi, India to talk to us about her journey through medicine as a bilateral cochlear implant recipient having had a cochlear implant at ages 7 and 10, and living with profound hearing loss.  

Murtaza Mirali Dewji is an author, madrasah teacher and wheelchair table tennis player and on this episode sharing his diagnosis of spastic paraplegia with us and his experiences with disability in our community.