Seven Years Later

March 8, 2026.Reading time 7 minutes.

The anniversary is looming, a week today, and this has been playing on my mind more than I expected. It has been seven years since I was first sexually assaulted. The same year our Mark died. Sometimes people separate those events in their minds. I can’t. They live in the same year. The same body. […]

Day 3: Fatigue and Flare-Ups – Learning to Pace

September 3, 2025.Reading time 2 minutes.

Fatigue isn’t just tiredness. It’s bone-deep exhaustion that sleep doesn’t fix. For people with conditions like ME/CFS, fibromyalgia, Long COVID, lupus, and even some mental health disorders, fatigue can be a full-body shutdown — often triggered by doing too much, too soon. This is where pacing comes in. It’s a self-management strategy that helps you […]

Day 1: What Is a Hidden Disability?

September 1, 2025.Reading time 3 minutes.

You can’t always see a disability. But that doesn’t mean it isn’t there. Hidden disabilities — also called invisible or non-visible disabilities — are conditions that affect a person’s day-to-day life but aren’t obvious to others. These include things like chronic fatigue, autism, bipolar disorder, PTSD, sensory processing issues, and many long-term physical and mental […]

Living with Trauma: It’s Not Just in the Past

August 12, 2025.Reading time 5 minutes.

We don’t always know when trauma begins — sometimes it’s one moment, one event that changes everything. Other times, it’s drip-fed over years. Not loud. Not dramatic. Just a slow erasing of safety. At the Mark Hewitson Foundation, we work with people who’ve lived through all kinds of trauma — grief, assault, abandonment, illness, violence, […]