Chris, Lucas and the Daily Yay

In May 2024, I did a Mobility Awareness Month walking fundraiser for the Invisible Disabilities Association, and was posting about it to get donations. 

A few days in, I wake up and see the largest single donation I’d ever received, from a man named Chris.

But - I’d never met Chris and had no idea who he was.

I looked closer at the name and thought wait, I recognize this - he tried to add me on LinkedIn a few weeks ago, but I didn’t do anything with it, because I didn’t know him.

So I go to LinkedIn, accept his invitation and message him something like “hey Chris, thanks for connecting.  I just saw that you made a really generous donation to my fundraiser, thank you so much! What’s your connection with invisible disabilities? Do you have one yourself or know somebody who does?”

Chris wrote back about an hour later with the message screenshot above.  🥹

“Hi Lauren -

First of all…BIG FAN!

Yes, my 8 year old son (Lucas) was diagnosed with CCD a few years ago. Tough age for him right now so I was looking for people with a similar condition and ran across your video on speaker slam. We watched it together and now try to celebrate a “Yay” everyday. Sharing your story has made a big impact on him - so happy to help and thank you for raising awareness for CCD and similar conditions. If theres ever anything I can do to support your efforts please dont hesitate to reach out.

Chris”

I read this message and I’m like bursting and melting at the same time, for the rest of the day. I never used to talk about my disability - partly because I didn’t have a diagnosis or name of it until my early twenties, so I didn’t know how to explain it to people.

Even after, I didn’t think there was a point of talking about it + figured nobody would understand.

I’d never really thought about the mental health aspect of living with a rare physical disability. But when I look back on that part of my life, where I didn’t have anything to Google to find people going through the same thing, or a name to research to find out why my body was the way it was, it was a pretty lonely experience.

I can only imagine what it would have been like to see representation, or see somebody talking about their disability and living their life, and the impact that would have made on me at 8 years old.

Chris and Lucas are what made me realize we never know who we’re impacting, just by being and sharing who we are. And that by owning and sharing our difficult experiences, we can be the representation and light for others to know that they can get through their difficult experiences too.

And thank goodness that during Disability Pride Month and beyond, there are so many of us out there, sharing our stories. 🤍💃🏽✨