Climbing on Lyme is a body of multi-media work exploring women’s lived experiences of chronic health conditions, created in collaboration with clinical academics.
Rooted in a shared commitment to centring lived experience as a catalyst for change, the project examines diagnostic uncertainty, lack of recognition, and the need for more compassionate, equitable care. For many women, the struggle to be believed remains a defining barrier. The work intertwines our own journey with chronic Lyme disease and living with Fibromyalgia.
Through visual art, music, spoken word, and film, Climbing on Lyme traces the precarious terrain of illness, its impact on identity, trust, relationships, and interactions with medical systems. It explores how environment, diet, technology, and misogyny intersect with health.
Funded by Creative Scotland and project partners with Aberdeen City Health Determinants Research Collaborative and multiple clinical academics, including Dr. Mairead Black, Dr. Rosemary Hollick, Dr. Lucky Saraswat, Dr. Nada Jodeh, and Professor Abdel-Fattah, who collectively bring expertise in obstetrics, rheumatology, gynaecology, and urogynaecology.
Additional contributors are health practitioners from the London Clinic of Nutrition, Integrated Dental Care and London Bioindentical Hormones.
Together, we plan to gather stories from around 40 women, alongside interviews with approximately 16 advocates, clinicians, academics, and holistic practitioners, and family members and friends, ensuring breadth of lived experience and professional perspective.
Women with chronic conditions such as premature ovarian failure, endometriosis adenomyosis, Lyme disease, fibromyalgia, diabetes, Cauda Equina Syndrome, MS, and women with other illnesses related to obstetrics, rheumatology, gynaecology, and urogynaecology, as well as women receiving care for pregnancy while having multiple long-term health conditions from the MuM-Predict project (run by the University of Birmingham).