12/01/2026
Have you seen our website recently?
www.theglowsticksproject.org.uk ...
Stories about our team, who we are and what we stand for are being updated, starting with our Founders, Rebecca.
Rebecca’s Story
Glowsticks was not created from theory, policy, or a distant idea of inclusion.
It was created from lived experience.
I am an autistic and ADHD adult, a parent carer, a charity founder, and someone who has spent much of my life navigating systems that were never designed for people like me or my family.
From an early age, I experienced significant mental health challenges, shaped by trauma, unmet needs, and repeated experiences of not being understood or supported. Like many neurodivergent people, I learned quickly how to mask, to over-perform, and to survive in environments that quietly eroded my wellbeing.
As an adult, this often resulted in being managed out of jobs - not because I lacked skill or commitment, but because workplaces struggled to understand neurodivergence, fluctuating capacity, or the need for reasonable adjustments.
Alongside this, I live with a rare and serious physical disability: autoimmune Pulmonary Alveolar Proteinosis (aPAP). This condition affects my lungs and breathing and has, at times, required hospital treatment, mobility aids, and the use of a wheelchair. Living with aPAP means understanding energy limits, access needs, fatigue, and the reality that disability is not always visible - but is always real. It has given me first-hand experience of navigating healthcare systems, physical accessibility barriers, and the complex intersection between physical disability, mental health, and neurodivergence.
I am also a parent carer to my son, who is autistic (Level 2 / moderate support needs). Parenting Olliver has been one of the greatest honours of my life - and also one of the hardest. Like many parent carers, I have experienced long periods with little to no meaningful support, fighting for understanding, provision, and basic adjustments while trying to keep my child safe, regulated, and thriving. I know what it is like to be exhausted, unheard, and expected to cope anyway.
My husband is also neurodivergent, also a combined Autism and ADHD diagnosis, and together we navigate the realities of family life, disability, and care with honesty and resilience - often without the safety nets others take for granted.
Glowsticks exists because I know, deeply, what it feels like to fall through the gaps.
I know what it means to be labelled “too much” or “not a good fit.”
I know what it feels like to be capable, passionate, and skilled - yet unsupported - and I know how damaging it is when systems focus on compliance rather than humanity.
That is why Glowsticks was built differently.
Everything we do is informed by lived experience:
- Neurodivergence (autism, ADHD, PDA profiles)
- Mental health and trauma
- Physical disability and mobility needs
- Parent carer exhaustion and isolation
- Employment exclusion and workplace harm
At Glowsticks, we do not expect people to fit into rigid systems.
We adapt the system to the person.
We prioritise safety, dignity, skill-building, and belonging. We understand that capacity fluctuates, that behaviour is communication, and that inclusion is not a buzzword - it is an active, ongoing practice.
Glowsticks is not just my work - it is my lived reality, transformed into something that offers others the support I wish had existed when I needed it most.
This is me - welcome to The Glowsticks Project 💚
