Message from Our Founder: Why The UK Needs Better Cool Access
My name is Maddie, and 13 years ago I was diagnosed with lupus, a lifelong autoimmune condition with symptoms often triggered by heat and UV light.
Nowadays I'm lucky that my condition is well-managed, and most of the year I live a pain-free, 'normal' life full of adventures. But as the summers get hotter, I feel the toll of my disability more and more every year - and it's not just me who faces these challenges.
There are tons of us: think many people with chronic illnesses, children and the elderly, people experiencing menopause. Even some common medications cause heat sensitivity. Over time, I’ve met more and more of us who, like me, have to change their whole life in the UK summers - and yet infrastructure doesn't seem to be changing, and the heatwaves are getting increasingly worse and harder to navigate. So I’m on a mission to make the UK more accessible for those of us who are sensitive to heat and sun, by campaigning for better awareness, better signposting, and making better provision a priority at the highest level.
Whether it’s navigating often inaccessible public transport, hunting for rare info about cooling and ventilation at venues, or sometimes being unable to leave the house at all on particularly hot and humid days, every summer becomes a constant grind of planning when and where we can safely go without consequences. It takes its toll not only on our physical health, but our work, our families, our finances, our mental health, and our independence. Too often, the world being so inaccessible in summer leaves us relying on the flexibility of loved ones and colleagues for several months a year just to try and maintain any sense of normalcy.
This is particularly a problem in the UK: while a lot of other hotter countries are hotter, they also have the infrastructure and the awareness in place to make it easier to navigate. The place I have had the most issues by far is the place I call home, where I feel really limited by my disability in a way we don’t elsewhere, so I’m passionate about making the UK easier to navigate for those of us with heat and sun sensitivity.
We all deserve to be able to go about our lives without worrying that everyday things will make us unwell or damage our health - and everyone from public services to small businesses benefit from happy, healthy citizens who don't need to hide inside their homes. With the climate getting hotter at an unprecedented rate, it's becoming more urgent that we not only take steps to make the world more accessible, but also make sure the world doesn't get even more inaccessible for those of us who are already finding it challenging to stay healthy and well.
