The face of British disability is increasingly young and female. It's time to hear from them | Frances Ryan

My book about disabled women grew in relevance as I wrote it, exposing the heartlessness of proposed harsh benefit cuts

When I began to write a book four years ago about life for disabled women in Britain, I didn't bank on it being particularly topical. Stuck in bed with chronic fatigue and pain in my early 30s, I wanted to write something that would connect with other women navigating pillboxes and heat pads alongside careers and relationships. And so I decided to interview more than 70 women and non-binary people with physical and mental health conditions - from famous actors to legal experts, musicians to psychologists. The result was a vast and varied catalogue of disabled life: from stories about workplace microaggressions and good and bad dates on the apps, to finding freedom (and judgment) using mobility aids.

What I didn't anticipate was that as the months went on, and my word count went up, the disabled cohort I was writing about would grow to include more and more women - many of them even younger than me.