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Scroll through 19-year-old Amy Poynton’s Instagram grid and you’ll find a post flagged with a trigger warning. Behind that warning is a disquieting photograph of newborn Amy in an incubator, her tiny body barely visible beneath a complex web of tubes, bandages and breathing apparatus.
From 2015 onwards, two words appeared daily in the search history of every phone, tablet and computer in our house: “Trump latest”. From the moment The Donald announced his candidacy my husband became a man obsessed, feverishly searching for updates on the Orange One’s latest antics/poll numbers/tweets. It irritated the hell out of me.
Kate Cogan was six months old when the soles of her feet began to blister. Her leg developed an infection that wouldn’t heal. Her anxious parents sought medical advice and their toddler daughter was referred by medics at Castlebar Hospital to Crumlin Children’s Hospital, where Kate was diagnosed with epidermolysis bullosa (EB).
My schooldays were replete with river stories. From Ratty and Mole’s waterway adventures to Huck Finn and Jim’s “free and easy” time on the mighty Mississippi, rivers loomed large as vehicles for tall tales, metaphors for freedom, and impromptu wildlife lessons.
‘I have to say that in my favour. I have that positivity,” Clare Mansfield tells me, and my, does she ever! She lights up the room with her energy and warmth.