Grace Spence Green

It's difficult not to divide Grace Spence Green's story into a before and after. The event that splits the two is one of the most dramatic instances of change that you can possible imagine: in 2018, Grace, then a 22 year-old medical student, was walking through a London shopping centre when a man jumped from a balcony, three storeys above, and landed on her. When she awoke, seven minutes later, surrounded by people, she realised she couldn't feel her legs. So began a painful process of coming to terms with the full extent of what had just happened – a process that, a few years later, is still in some sense on-going. Because while Grace quite quickly accepted the reality of her injury, and the implications it would have on her day-to-day, what she couldn't have predicted was the ways it would change her understanding of care, empathy and other people. This is a conversation about autonomy, quiet prejudice, and Grace's rejection of the expectations and limitations that society places on disabled people. It's also a powerful testament to something we all know, but avoid considering: unbelievable, uncontrollable changes can rear their heads at any ordinary instant. We may be powerless to stop them, but we can certainly control how we react to them. And in that way, Grace's story is profoundly inspiring.

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