To Exist As I Am – A Doctor’s Notes on Recovery and Radical Acceptance is published on the 5th of June.
At the age of twenty-two, Grace Spence Green’s spine was broken by a man falling on her in a shopping centre. One day, she was in hospital supporting patients, the next she was fighting for her own life. As she struggled to piece together her new life as a wheelchair user, she wondered how she could be both a doctor and a patient.
To Exist As I Am chronicles Grace’s journey from idealistic medical student to spinal-injury patient, and then to qualified doctor and vocal disability activist. Her life-affirming reflections question the value we place on independence, in favour of the rich networks of care that bind us together. She asks how we might fight for change, while joyously embracing life as we are.
It is a vital account of care, what it means to heal, and the many shapes recovery and self-acceptance can take.
“To Exist As I Am reflects on the boundaries between those who care, and those who receive care in an absolutely extraordinary way. Grace combines humour, warmth and grit to tell a story that would make anyone reflect on their own sense of self and the meaning of the relationships around them as well as on the nature of injury and healing. Essential reading” – Dr Xand van Tulleken
Read more about Grace in our previous article, where she tells EC1 Echo how Clerkenwell could be better equipped to improve disabled people’s lives.
Grace Spence Green is a junior doctor working to challenge the narratives surrounding disability, medicine and identity. In 2018, aged 22 and a 4th year medical student, she sustained a spinal cord injury and is now a full-time wheelchair user. Since her life-changing injury, Grace has become a passionate advocate for the disabled community, appearing in the BMJ and Guardian, and across TV and radio.
Follow her on Bluesky.
Find out more at a free event with the author at the Wellcome Collection on Thu 5th June, and buy the book – here.
