Born in 1974 the son of Val & George Finney my life did not start that great, born at the newly built Maternity building at the Leicester Royal Infirmary I was starved of oxygen and this resulted in a future of challenges and life-threatening struggles which meant years of visiting hospitals and thousands of x-rays and blood test in the efforts to find some understanding behind the many health problems.

At the age of 3 months, I was referred to the world renounced London children’s hospital – Great Ormand Street where doctors diagnosed and started to treat my lifelong non curable lung conditions.

At the time it was believe that excess usage of Prednisolone Steroid and cortisol steroid would control the autoimmune system and would have no everlasting side effects, how wrong was their assumption!! I was diagnosed with Chronic bronchitis as well as severe asthma thanks to the skills and continuing research this hospital and its amazing medical professionals became my second family for more than 15 years of my life.

Professor Robert Dinwiddie has he is now known became my patient’s reassurance and personal trainer helping them to provide me with the maximum amount of potential through whatever struggles I came across.

At the age of three I was enrolled in the then parkfield special needs nursery, located off Hinckley Road in Leicester; where for two years I was supported medically by my own private children’s nurse who administered my nebulizers every four hours and helped me to learn the basics of life.

In 1979 at the age of 5 years old I was enrolled into the then only special school here in the City of Leicester, a school located half-way down the half-mile driveway of western park one of Leicester’s largest public parks located just of Leicester’s A47 Hinckley Road.

Originally built in 1930 this school was the first ever Open-Air School in the world it was built by the Leicester Corporation as a experiment in Fresh Air Cures Respiratory Diseases. Western Park Open Air School became my second home from 1979 to 1992 and throughout my time there I was taught how to manage my lifelong condition and gain an A grade education at the same time, this school was unique in the fact that everyone at the school had some sort of disability which meant I had a better understanding of disabilities and the struggles that others receive in their day to day lives everyone receive the same amount of education as in a mainstream as well as us all learning how to manage our medication and the limitations that it poses throughout our lives.

Thanks to my schooling I am easily able to cope with all the challenges that the world throughs at me with knowledge and understanding.

Throughout the years I’ve struggled with my mental health resulting in two attempts on my own life, until I stumbled upon the idea of a rather blunt and no hole’s bard online blog and for the past fifteen years, I have been regularly making a entry into a journal of life with mental health and respiratory disease and all that goes with it.

These days I struggle with caring for my dad and myself and quite often drop my guard and find myself unwell without realising it, a Good day is a chatty day. a bad day is a quiet day for everyone my blog can be accessed via this site but only on request of its password as it is a no limitations view of my minds thoughts these can be rather rude and offensive.

As a lasting legacy to my mums constant efforts to help people with disabilities I use my skills and experiences to advocate on behalf of others who struggle to put their point across so far i have won two cases on behalf of others in the last three years.

until my health became more challenging I had been a trustee/director for a Leicestershire disability charity for over 20 years, I have witnessed a lot of unfair non ethically behaviour from individuals and organisation that should know better. I promised to myself I would stand my ground and prevent others from becoming victims, sadly this isn’t always easy as victims don’t normally make themselves known plus i have my own demons which make life difficult.