Everyone involved with our charity has a story to tell – you might recognise yourself in some of these words?
Rebecca’s Story
Glowsticks was not created from theory, policy, or a distant idea of inclusion. It was created from lived experience.
I am an autistic and ADHD adult, a parent carer, a charity founder, and someone who has spent much of my life navigating systems that were never designed for people like me or my family.
From an early age, I experienced significant mental health challenges, shaped by trauma, unmet needs, and repeated experiences of not being understood or supported. Like many neurodivergent people, I learned quickly how to mask, to over-perform, and to survive in environments that quietly eroded my wellbeing.
As an adult, this often resulted in being managed out of jobs – not because I lacked skill or commitment, but because workplaces struggled to understand neurodivergence, fluctuating capacity, or the need for reasonable adjustments.
Alongside this, I live with a rare and serious physical disability: autoimmune Pulmonary Alveolar Proteinosis (aPAP). This condition affects my lungs and breathing and has, at times, required hospital treatment, mobility aids, and the use of a wheelchair.
Living with aPAP means understanding energy limits, access needs, fatigue, and the reality that disability is not always visible – but is always real. It has given me first-hand experience of navigating healthcare systems, physical accessibility barriers, and the complex intersection between physical disability, mental health, and neurodivergence.
I am also a parent carer to my son, who is autistic (Level 2 / moderate support needs). Parenting Olliver has been one of the greatest honours of my life – and also one of the hardest. Like many parent carers, I have experienced long periods with little to no meaningful support, fighting for understanding, provision, and basic adjustments while trying to keep my child safe, regulated, and thriving. I know what it is like to be exhausted, unheard, and expected to cope anyway.
My husband is also neurodivergent, also a combined Autism and ADHD diagnosis, and together we navigate the realities of family life, disability, and care with honesty and resilience – often without the safety nets others take for granted.
Glowsticks exists because I know, deeply, what it feels like to fall through the gaps.
I know what it means to be labelled “too much” or “not a good fit.”
I know what it feels like to be capable, passionate, and skilled – yet unsupported – and I know how damaging it is when systems focus on compliance rather than humanity.
That is why Glowsticks was built differently.
Everything we do is informed by lived experience:
- Neurodivergence (autism, ADHD, PDA profiles)
- Mental health and trauma
- Physical disability and mobility needs
- Parent carer exhaustion and isolation
- Employment exclusion and workplace harm
At Glowsticks, we do not expect people to fit into rigid systems.
We adapt the system to the person.
We prioritise safety, dignity, skill-building, and belonging. We understand that capacity fluctuates, that behaviour is communication, and that inclusion is not a buzzword – it is an active, ongoing practice.
Glowsticks is not just my work – it is my lived reality, transformed into something that offers others the support I wish had existed when I needed it most.