Thread by @Keirwales

So because @BPDFFS joined the 1% club of people who donated to my marathon fundraising target, this is why I first followed her. 👇

https://twitter.com/BPDFFS/status/1593956007637442560

In some ways why I followed her is a bit boring, why I really, really wanted her to follow me is perhaps more interesting. Never the less...

I started this twitter account at the BIGSPD conference on the Isle of Man 6 (?) years ago. Wanting it to be for work I followed anyone tweeting about the conference and at one point I'd have searched 'BPD' and followed a few of the people who came up.

I'd see Sue posting about issues that effected me and the people I worked with. While she could be vitriolic about issues, she was always very gentle and respectful to those she interacted with. I'd see Sue doing #BPDchat and be amazed at what a compassionate, helpful space...

...she and Carl had created online. While I was feeling somewhat inadequate with 3 colleagues and my mum following me, I remember admiring Sue's output and hoping in some way she'd appreciate the things I was doing in the same area.

I met Sue at a BIGSPD community of practice event in Leeds where she spoke very eloquently and passionately about the personality disorder consensus statement she was coauthor of.

Me and @HoppyPelican spent the lunchbreak with her walking around the medical museum looking at some of the most sadistic looking implements ever created which were I flicted on people many years ago.

I was in a hotel just preparing for my first ever commissioned piece of private training when I saw Sue on the BBC with the Consensus statement being releases. Many people with lived experience, Royal College of Nursing, BPS, Royal collage of GPs (not my Prof body) calling for..

...the term "personality disorder' to be abandoned.

Can't remember ever seeing "BPD" on the BBC before that.

bbc.co.uk/news/health-42…

I met Sue again at the BIGSPD conference in Cardiff in 2018. We sat together and watched some talks (possibly one of the more infamous ones). We increased our connection around a shared distance for places that falsely call themselves specialist and who detain people for years.

I was really glad when me and Hollie got to talk to Sue in more depth on our podcast

podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/epi…

So...I followed Sue because she talked about issues I was I terested in. I wanted her to follow me because she was front and centre of efforts to bring services and lived experience together. Someone who modelled passion, drive and effectiveness.

There's a few people that I've been really pleased when they followed me, and seeing "Sue sibbald followed you" was definitely someone I'd been hoping for for ages.

So that's why. If you have a task for me I will do most things for £22

justgiving.com/fundraising/Ke…