My Invisible Life (MIL) is a Not For Profit online, storytelling community blog about living with an invisible illness. It
strives to bring readers a broad, enriching and valuable range of personal stories about living with invisible illness from around the world. These will be stories that are inspirational, heartfelt, motivational and authentic and will be the personal
stories of those living with an invisible illness.
There are hundreds if not thousands of websites and personal blogs where people are sharing their experiences of living with illness, but these are usually posted within
the confines of their own illness community or are undiscovered and do not have a voice online.
MIL aims to bring all communities together with all the undiscovered stories, large and small, those who live with illness directly, family and friends and the broader
community with the aim being to:-
- Assist people in our community with chronic illness in feeling less isolated, more empowered and more connected to their world.
- Provide a vehicle for those with illness and their families and friends to speak out about their experiences by sharing their story and to support their chosen
charity through their online MIL profiles.
- Provide a trusted and respected online community for storytellers to share their experiences and grow a community following.
- Enable the wider community to grow their understanding and appreciation what it is like to live with a challenging health condition be it visible or invisible.
Together people can learn about different lives, come to appreciate their own, be inspired by the journeys of others and together grow the community consciousness of illness.
The inspiration
My Invisible Life was inspired both by Melinda's (the founders) personal experience with an invisible illness namely Multiple Sclerosis and her friendship with a woman she met in
hospital in 2012 who has Motor Neurone Disease.
In 2013 Melinda fundraised for and produced a private film for her friend and her two young children called 'How I Met Your Mother'. It brought together 31 of her friends to tell
her children about their mother, how they met her, about her personality, her passions - the little things they would never know otherwise.
The objective of the film is for her children to always remember their mother, the wonderful person she is and how deeply she loved them. ( Melinda's friend is still alive today
though her condition is terminal).
Once this was completed, Melinda needed to do more, so she started My Invisible Life. Her own personal experience with MS is a fortunate one and meeting her friend hit home to her how random life is and how invisible life
can be. It made her realise that everyone has an invisible ‘something’ and that the societal development of true empathy and understanding comes with a willingness to share stories and personal experiences and to learn from each other.
Professionally Melinda is a Business Developer and a Marketer with over 15 years experience across both the Commercial and Not For Profit sectors. For more information you can find
her on LinkedIn http://au.linkedin.com/in/melindazanello .
What we have achieved so far
1.Built the website - www.myinvisiblelife.net
2.Grown the social communities on Facebook (1000+) and Twitter (700+) -
3. 10+ regular storytellers on the site across multiple illnesses.
