12+ Disabled & Chronic Illness YouTubers to Follow

Just like when you go searching for patient perspectives and experiences on Google, you get the larger medical sites, the same goes for YouTube too. It can be tough to figure out who the various disabled and chronic illness YouTubers are giving out relevant and very resourceful content, so I thought to write about the ones I’ve come across…

Cheekily, I’m including myself… and well, why not?! (Psst… I’m at no. 4)

Currently this is a list of 12 people, which I’ll keep adding to, hence the “+” in the title.

1. The Annie Elainey

I got to know about Annie through her Instagram posts. They’re not just uplifting but also very informative. She takes you into her life speaking about the challenges of various medical conditions like Ehlers-Danlos syndrome and being an ambulatory wheelchair user.

Having interacted with her through chats, she has always been very helpful in answering any questions that I would need guidance on.

In Annie’s YouTube channel, she speaks about body image, gender, race, LGBTQIA+, disability, chronic illness and mental health.

You can check out her channel right here… I really love this EDS video of hers…

2. Jessica Kellgren-Fozard

I came across Jessica’s channel over a month ago right when I was working on the content to restart my channel.

I wanted to understand how I could add subtitles to my videos and there was a lovely explanation of this by Jessica who lost her ability to hear because of her disabilities; hereditary neuropathy with liability to pressure palsy (HNPP), Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (EDS) and postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS).

Through her YouTube channel, Jessica speaks about beautiful vintage lifestyle, fashion, disabilities, chronic illnesses and LGBTQ awareness.

3. Molly Burke

In my quest to find YouTubers who were sharing and speaking about their chronic conditions and / or disabilities I came across Molly Burke who is legally blind.

She was diagnosed with retinitis pigmentosa at the age of four and lost most of her vision by the age of 14.

Molly speaks about what it’s like living with being blind, fashion, makeup, disability rights and her experiences with sport as she comes from a family that’s very sporty.

In a recent video of hers, I loved listening to how she played soccer as a child and how she loves skiing! Being someone who loves all sorts of sports, I was really fascinated to watch her.

This is the video I’m talking about:

4. Footprints, No Boundaries

My channel, Footprints No Boundaries is about sharing all that I’ve learnt about the 13 chronic conditions I have (endometriosis, EDS, adenomyosis, fibromyalgia and more) including practical tips, life lessons and how I manage my mental health through all the challenges.

Just as I do in this blog of mine, I speak of relationships in times of bad health and so much more. So here’s a quick and shameless request asking you to subscribe to my channel and hit the bell icon too because I really want more people to know what I do and for them to not learn it all the hard way, like I’ve had to.

Thank you for supporting me, and here’s my latest video:

5. Oliver Lam Watson

Oliver is a wheelchair fencer for team Great Britain and is working on being part of the 2020 Paralympics (which will now be in 2021). He was born with a rare congenital vascular disorder – Klippel-Trenaunay syndrome (KTS) in his left leg.

In a Kingston University article, where Oliver did his post-graduation from in architecture, he says:

“Growing up I only ever saw negative footage about disability and I wanted to share positive messages and achieve the things I’ve always been told I couldn’t do,”

He is quite active in sharing his life on Instagram, but I find his videos easy to watch, relatable even though I don’t play sports (despite loving it) and neither do I have KTS but yet it’s interesting to hear his perspective.

6. You Look Okay To Me

I love this channel’s name which has been created by Jameisha Prescod who was diagnosed with lupus in 2014.

She is a BBC News Africa journalist but in her YouTube channel she talks about pain and chronic illnesses by not just sharing her story but others as well.

I initially found her through Instagram, but I’m glad to see her YouTube channel because her videos speak to every one of us out there battling some condition. I particularly liked these two videos of hers:

Endometriosis is Not Just a Bad Period – The First flare:

Things Not to Say to Someone with a Chronic Illness:

7. Melissa vs Fibromyalgia

Melissa has fibromyalgia but what I find extremely inspiring is how Melissa is passionate about sharing the tools of yoga to help with fibromyalgia. She is a yoga teacher, author, a mother… and recently has got a super cute pup home!

What I particularly love is how simple and accessible she makes yoga for people who have chronic conditions, it’s also because she knows what it’s like to be a spoonie.

On her website, there are options to be part of her restorative yoga workshops, but if you’d like to start off with beginner yoga for fibromyalgia, chronic pain and chronic fatigue then do check this out:

8. Beauty & The Migraine Beast

Recommended by a fellow spoonie, this YouTube channel created by Pamela Gauthier is about living with the beast – migraines.

She speaks openly about migraine realities in order to create “awareness, understanding and compassion to what life with chronic migraine is really like” (as she states in her channel description).

Do check her out for more on the migraine life because she is genuine with her experiences and there is so much to learn too…

9. WheelsToWalking

I stumbled upon WheelsToWalking through an Instagram post and have really enjoyed hearing about Richard’s journey. Over 10 years ago (January, 2010) Richard was in an accident. Extremely unfortunately, while running, Richard fell 50ft into an underground parking, which put him in a wheelchair.

He had to relearn so much about being in a wheelchair and how to do various things while being in one.

He says in one of his videos that if he had a resource like his channel, he would watch each video. He creates videos that are practical and inspiring to those who could do with all the knowledge he’s learnt.

Richard believes that you can have an improved quality of life and be independent while having to use a wheelchair.

Here’s that video…

And because I have EDS, I was so happy to watch him interview a fellow zebra. Here’s Richard interviewing with Abby Sams who has EDS…

10. Live Hope Lupus

Live Hope Lupus is Samantha Wayne’s YouTube channel where she shares about living with lupus, diets for those with autoimmune disorders, Sjogrens’ syndrome and other chronic conditions.

Here’s Samantha’s Lupus diagnosis to get us started with her story:

11. Izzy Kornblau

Izzy’s channel is about her experiences with Ehlers-Danlos, POTS, a few other chronic conditions, various products and real conversations with family and other spoonies.

When I was a year into my EDS diagnosis, I had then come across Izzys channel and I suddenly felt better because I realised that there are more people like me out there – I’m not alone and I will forever be thankful to Izzy’s videos for that.

12. Chronically Jaquie

I just had to make a special mention of Jaquie and her channel, Chronically Jaquie.

Around the time that I discovered Izzy’s channel, I also discovered Jaquie’s channel. Her passing in April 2019 was very sad but she inspired so many of us and I am forever grateful for that.

Jaquie’s channel content is still available and is still very relevant. Please check it out.

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That’s my list for now. As I keep discovering more spoonie YouTubers, I’ll keep adding to this list.

If you know of a YouTuber that I haven’t mentioned, then please do drop in your comments in the section below – I’d be happy to explore more such channels and learn from them.

Thank you for reading. I hope you’re all well and safe.

Take care… 🙂

If you’re a social media person, then you can follow me on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest or YouTube.

Relevant Read:

• Podcast Ep 19: How to Find Humour to Ease Anxiety & Stress
• Tips: How I Reduced Hair Loss Caused by Medication
• How I Accepted My Mobility Aid. The Steps I Took.

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Disclaimer: I am not a medical professional. I am a patient and have created this platform to share my experiences. This is all purely informative and in no way am I providing medical advice. Please consult a medical professional.