Neurodiversity Celebration Week: What is it all about?
Neurodiversity Celebration Week is from 17 - 23 March in 2025. It's when people all over the UK are encouraged to think about and celebrate neurodiversity, as well as challenge stereotypes people might have about it.Neurodiversity is a word used to describe the different thinking styles that influence how people communicate with the world around them.It is an umbrella term - a word that sums up lots of different things. It includes autism, ADHD, dyslexia, dyspraxia, dyscalculia and Tourette's.Thousands of schools have signed up to take part, to celebrate and raise awareness about what it means to be neurodivergent. Siena Castellon started Neurodiversity Celebration week in 2018, she said: "People often focus on the challenges of neurological diversity. "I wanted to change the narrative and create a balanced view which focuses equally on our talents and strengths."
What does neurodivergent mean?
The word neurodivergent comes from two parts - neurological and divergent.Neurological is a term for things to do with our brain, and divergent is about moving away from a set path.It is a term used for lots of people who have different thinking or communication styles.These include conditions like, autism and ADHD, which can influence how people communicate with others and the world around them.There's also dyslexia, which influences how people read and spell, or dyspraxia, which can influence movement and co-ordination.
Neurodivergence can refer to a number of different things.Some people might like to refer to specific conditions instead. However, there can also be some crossover within neurodiversity such as autism and ADHD.Around 15-20% of all the people living in the world are thought to be neurodivergent. There are lots of famous people who are neurodivergent, including superstar gymnast Simone Biles who has ADHD, presenter and conservationist Chris Packham who is autistic, space scientist Maggie Aderin-Pocock who is dyslexic, and singers Billie Eilish and Lewis Capaldi have Tourette's.
Mateo, Riley and Lucy-Lu all go to the same school, and they are all neurodivergent.Mateo is autistic, and says he struggles with certain foods. He wears ear protectors when things are noisy. Lucy-Lu has ADHD and dyslexia, and says she finds it hard to focus in school, and will often fidget. She also uses ear protectors sometimes.Riley has ADHD, and says he finds it tricky when he can't deal with his emotions if something he does not like happens.Luckily in their school, they have lots of different things to help them throughout the day, including stand-up desks, sensory walls and activities, and places to go if they feel overwhelmed.However, not everyone has access to the same support.
Riley, Mateo and Lucy-Lu's tips to make sure EVERYONE feels included:
1. Never tease or make fun of someone for being different or finding something difficult.2. Be kind, encouraging and understanding.3. Remember that you have the power to make a BIG difference to someone who could be having a difficult time.
If you are neurodivergent, you can get support in school, from family and friends and if you need it, from the NHS.Remember you can always talk to someone you trust about how you are feeling. If you're not sure who you would like to talk to, you could ring Childline on 0800 1111.
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Daily Mirror
14 hours ago
- Daily Mirror
Lucy Spraggan has to go through close pal Simon Cowell's partner to speak to him
X Factor star Lucy Spraggan, who has enjoyed a successful career since appearing on the talent show in 2012, has kept a close friendship with music mogul Simon Cowell Lucy Spraggan has said that she has to "go through" Lauren to speak to Simon Cowell, despite him walking her down the aisle. Simon and Lucy have been close ever since she competed on The X Factor back in 2012, but she still doesn't have direct contact with him. Lucy has said that Simon never gets in touch first and when she wants to speak to him, she has to go through his partner Lauren. However, this is due to the fact that Simon doesn't have his own personal mobile phone. Simon is only contactable through his fiancée Lauren Silverman due to this. Despite not having regular contact over the phone, Lucy said that she and her wife Emilia Smith often stay with Simon and Lauren at their homes in LA and the Cotswolds as well as going on holiday to Barbados. Lucy told The Sun: "I speak to Lauren all the time. But Simon hasn't got a phone so I speak to him when she's on the phone!" Simon played a big role at Lucy's wedding last year. He walked the singer down the aisle as well as reading a poem at the ceremony. It was during a holiday when Simon was asked by Lucy to do the honour. Speaking exclusively to the Mirror, the singer-songwriter said: "It's as nice to have a close bond with anyone. He's just a really remarkable guy, really individual person. "I speak about this a lot, there's a lot of people that have a lot of things to say about him, there's a bit of a mass perception that a lot of people can have and I can only go off the person that I've interacted with and I'll judge someone on their merit and how they've been with me. "I've had nothing but great times with Simon and had a lot of really important conversations, I think he's a great guy." Lucy was previously married to Georgina Gordon before they went their separate ways in 2019. The two of them talked about wanting to start a family together and they fostered 12 children during their six year marriage. However, Lucy has said now that she doesn't see children being in her future. She said: "I don't want kids. All of my friends that had kids are like, 'Luce - don't do it. I love them, but don't!' "Em has some health issues herself. And, like, I do music and I do my job so that I can experience peace in between. I feel like I couldn't give what I need to give to my career if I had a child, and I wouldn't have any f*****g peace If I had a child. It's dogs, dogs for me."
Scottish Sun
17 hours ago
- Scottish Sun
Simon Cowell is like a dad & gave me away at wedding…but I have to go through Lauren to speak to him, says Lucy Spraggan
HE'S the big daddy of the music industry - and an unlikely father figure to singer Lucy Spraggan, so much so he even walked her down the aisle. But despite their incredibly close bond, the former X Factor contestant reveals he never calls her or drops her a WhatsApp message. 15 Lucy's just released her new album, Other Sides Of The Moon Credit: Emilia Kate Photography 15 She first rose to fame as a contestant on The X Factor in 2012 Credit: PA:Press Association 15 She and Simon are firm friends - and he even walked her down the aisle Credit: Rex That's because the Britain's Got Talent judge, 65, doesn't possess a mobile phone. Lucy, 33, says he's only contactable through his fiancée, Lauren Silverman. "I speak to Lauren all the time," she tells The Sun. "But Simon hasn't got a phone so I speak to him when she's on the phone!' Despite the lack of regular contact, Lucy and her photographer wife Emilia Smith regularly stay with him and Lauren at their lavish homes in LA and the Cotswolds, and enjoy taking holidays together in Simon's happy place, Barbados. So close is their bond that Simon played a pivotal role at the couple's wedding last year. 'He read a poem at our ceremony, which was cute,' Lucy says. 'And he said to me, 'I love seeing you this happy'.' But are wedding bells on the cards for Simon any time soon, after he finally proposed to long-term love Lauren - with whom he shares 11-year-old son Eric - three years ago? 'I hope so!' Lucy says. 'But trying to find time for those guys is nuts." While Simon is always on hand to offer Lucy career advice, he's not the only Cowell that she now turns to. X Factor star Lucy Spraggan shares her incredible body transformation leaving viewers amazed 15 Lucy hopes her friends Simon and his fiancée Lauren finally tie the knot - if they ever find the time Credit: Splash 15 Lucy says Simon's 11-year-old son Eric is a chip off the old block Credit: Alamy 15 Simon dressed as a priest for Lucy's birthday party Credit: Instagram 'Eric actually gave me advice for the drums for this album,' she reveals. 'He's like a mini Simon. He's very funny. He's very, very smart and he knows exactly what he wants that kid.' Lucy was previously married to Georgina Gordon, and the pair were open about wanting to start a family together before they split in 2019. They even fostered 12 children during their six-year marriage. But despite her past and close relationship with Simon's lad, the singer says children are not in her future with Emilia. 'I don't want kids,' she tells us. 'All of my friends that had kids are like, 'Luce - don't do it. I love them, but don't!' 'Em has some health issues herself. And, like, I do music and I do my job so that I can experience peace in between. "I feel like I couldn't give what I need to give to my career if I had a child, and I wouldn't have any f*****g peace If I had a child. It's dogs, dogs for me.' Traumatic ordeal 15 Lucy, pictured performing at Kew The Music Festival last year Credit: Splash 15 Lucy is happily married to her second wife Emilia Smith Credit: Instagram 15 Lucy was assaulted after a night out for fellow X Factor contestant Rylan Clark's birthday while they were competing on the show Credit: Getty Lucy and Simon's surprising friendship blossomed in 2021, under less than happy circumstances. She was writing her memoir Process: Finding My Way Through - which dealt with the traumatic sexual assault she experienced while competing on The X Factor in 2012. Lucy was one of the favourites to win her series before she mysteriously dropped out of the competition during the live finals. At the time it was reported the then 20-year-old had quit due to illness, and while she went on to have some success as an artist, the question over what had really thwarted her X Factor journey was never fully answered. Then, two years ago, she opened up for the first time that she'd been a victim of a shocking sexual assault - bravely waiving her right to anonymity in the process. She'd been out celebrating friend and fellow X Factor contestant Rylan Clark's birthday at swanky Mayfair nightclub Mahiki, and passed out after hours of boozing. Lucy was taken back to her hotel by a member of the X Factor production team and a hotel porter - but later that night, after Rylan had gone to check on her, the porter returned and used a key card to break into her room. The next day Lucy woke up feeling a 'sense of sheer dread'. She knew she'd been raped, but couldn't piece the rest of the night together. In the aftermath the police were called and the hotel porter was arrested. He was later jailed for 10 years, but was released and deported after three-and-a-half years. No one ever contacted me to ask if I was OK... No one offered me rehabilitation or ongoing mental health treatment. I was on my own Lucy Spraggan Traumatised Lucy was subsequently forced to quit the show after the side-effects of PrEP - a drug she took after the assault that helps prevent HIV - made her too unwell to continue. 'No one ever contacted me to ask if I was OK," she wrote in her book. "No one offered me rehabilitation or ongoing mental health treatment. I was on my own.' Simon, who didn't appear on her series, had no idea what Lucy had been through and only heard about it when she reached out to his production company Syco while writing her book. He called her immediately, and much to her surprise, he apologised, and the pair became friends. Since opening up about the traumatic incident, Lucy says she's reached a whole new level of peace. 'It's been amazing,' she says. 'I always felt quite misunderstood. And it always felt quite unfair when people would say, 'Oh, you just dropped off…where did you go?' Or, 'Oh, you must have had a bad hangover!' 'People said stuff like that when they didn't really know what happened. So, it was kind of nice to right those injustices, and also just find peace within it.' Self-preservation 15 She's credited Rylan Clark for being one of the few people on The X Factor who supported her in the wake of her attack Credit: Getty 15 She says she and Emilia don't want kids, and prefer hanging out with their dog, Steven Credit: Instagram/lspraggan Since sharing her ordeal Lucy says she's been touched, and saddened, by the number of people who relate to her experience - but has had to set some firm boundaries for the sake of her own mental health. 'I actually say at the end of my book that, as much of an honour it is for people to feel comfortable enough to want to approach me and tell me their story, I'm actually asking them not to,' she admits. 'Because people have been able to make the choice to read about my experience and absorb it, but I don't have a choice when someone approaches me. 'So, I ask instead that, if people want to share with me what they've been through, they give me a fist bump, and I'll tell them how proud of them I am. As much of an honour it is for people to feel comfortable enough to want to approach me and tell me their story, I'm actually asking them not to Lucy Spraggan 'And I s**t you not, on a daily basis, people come up to me and give me a fist bump.' The singer has been through the gamut of personal challenges since her X Factor experience: substance abuse, alcoholism and incredibly low self worth. She's now six years sober, and has been on a serious fitness journey, training in mixed martial arts and recently earning her blue belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu. "I actually feel like every single woman should investigate violence," she says, explaining how training makes her feel strong after feeling weak and vulnerable in the past. "Jiu-Jitsu is amazing because it really doesn't matter the size of the person. If I'm rolling or grappling with a hundred-kilo man, I can submit that man. That's really empowering." 'Failure of fame' Lucy has also dedicated a lot of time and effort towards campaigning for better care and protection on reality TV shows. In her view the industry preys on and exploits potentially vulnerable people and doesn't do its job to protect against the harshness and pressures of life in the public eye. Liam Payne's tragic death last October hit her deeply. As a fellow former X Factor contestant, she knows all too well the "feeding frenzy" he was submitted to from such a young age. While Lucy got a taste of that all-encompassing fame, she says she can't imagine the goldfish bowl existence of being in One Direction. 'I just felt an overwhelming feeling of sadness for him and his family,' she says. 'And, once again, it's [pointed to] a failure of fame. I just felt an overwhelming feeling of sadness for Liam and his family... once again, it's a failure of fame 'Rather than it being about an institution, it's about being famous. You know, the most famous I ever was, was on The X Factor. 'I have a really comfortable level of fame now - it's great where I'm at. But in those moments back then, it was traumatising.' Lucy adds that it's a pattern in showbiz that shows no signs of stopping. 'We don't learn lessons about the fragility of people, especially artists,' she says. 'They're the most sensitive set of people in the world, creatives. And I feel like we have a really weird relationship with [famous people]. 'Ultimately the public really likes watching somebody's demise.' Fear of going out 15 Lucy went sober in 2019, and has been on a serious health kick ever since Credit: Instagram/LucySpraggan Lucy's own mental health recovery is a work in progress. Having suffered from PTSD in the wake of her attack, she struggled going to new places - especially hotels. These days, she says, the trauma can still take her by surprise. 'I won't say I don't still run into moments like that,' she reflects. 'I did a lot of EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing) therapy, which is intense and it really helped. "And I highly recommend that for anybody who has been through significant traumatic events.' Having worked so hard on herself, now seemed like the best time to record and release her latest album, Other Sides of the Moon. As well as new songs, it features re-imagined renditions of some of her biggest hits, including fan favourite Tea & Toast. She tells us it's been a 'cathartic' experience - even though she hates the word. "I feel like, during a lot of my earlier career and life, I just felt really uncomfortable," Lucy admits. 'I didn't ever feel like I belonged in the music industry. I didn't really like where my voice sat. I didn't feel very comfortable. So now I get to live all that out again but feeling comfortable.' Lucy - who heads out on tour in November - reveals one of her favourite songs on the album is a duet with Robbie Williams, called Sober. The pair bonded immediately and even share a surprising hobby - metal detecting. 'The other day I was out with a guy who told me Robbie likes metal detecting as well,' Lucy tells us. 'And so I texted him and was like, 'No f*****g way!' It was so good. 15 She and Robbie Williams share a love for music... and metal detecting Credit: Instagram 15 Lucy putting her hobby to good use as a celebrity endorser for Minelab Metal Detectors Credit: Instagram/lspraggan
Times
2 days ago
- Times
Heston: My Life with Bipolar review — a frank account of his breakdown
In 2004 I interviewed Heston Blumenthal at his Fat Duck restaurant on the back of one of his brilliant ideas that some less enlightened souls might have called bonkers. He wanted patrons to put on headphones and listen to their own slurps and crunches as they chowed down on the Berkshire establishment's fabled dishes of snail porridge, and egg and bacon ice cream. While it was more fun than it sounds, I had no idea that behind this hugely likeable, dazzlingly imaginative and energetic success story lurked an array of problems that in November 2023 had him sectioned. To those who knew him better, however, his ADHD and bipolar diagnoses were less of a shock. Heston: My Life with Bipolar (BBC2) may have been yet another of those emotional journey films, but it was an unusually powerful and important one. Honesty is a prerequisite but, Blumenthal being Blumenthal, he took emotional frankness to a more extreme — you could say snail porridge — level, even playing himself in a reconstruction of the moment when he was injected with a 'whacking great syringe' and carted off to a psychiatric unit. • Read more TV reviews, guides about what to watch and interviews His inner circle, including his wife, Melanie, and the former Fat Duck head chef Garrey Dawson, spoke compassionately about his breakdown. Dawson recalled the moment when Blumenthal imagined that he could speak telepathically to his slobbery bulldog, Harry. Blumenthal is now heavily medicated, something that has added pounds, slowed his speech to a drowsy murmur and left him with a lingering terror that his creativity might be compromised. Yet this was no self-pitying wallow, more a determinedly bracing quest for understanding. He also wanted to make amends, notably with his chef son, Jack, who spoke on camera for the first time about growing up with a dad who was almost entirely self-absorbed and offered no sense that he 'gave a shit'. Their reconciliation was beautiful. Another sequence had Blumenthal looking back on a TV interview in which he barely stopped speaking for half an hour, his mind firing off like a Catherine wheel on every conceivable subject except the one they were meant to discuss (robots in kitchens, since you ask). The artist Sarah Graham, who also has bipolar disorder and was one of many excellent and engaging talking heads, was able to laugh about making a friendship bracelet for Vladimir Putin during a mental health episode; Blumenthal, for his part, thought he could single-handedly solve the world's water crisis. These lighter moments were important in a film with many dark ones, most notably the heart-rending chat with the mother of a vibrant young woman with bipolar who took her own life. Like many campaigning programmes, this didn't have a clear set of goals beyond the obvious one that we need to give more support to those who have a condition that affects more people in this country than dementia. The great chef clearly feels lucky to have had the means and loving support to come through. 'The peaks of my manic highs have shrunk and the depths of the lows have risen, but I am still Heston,' he said. Long may that be the case. Vive le chef. Vive le snail porridge.★★★★☆
