Ciara's Pink Sparkle Podcast!

I chatted with Comedian Alistair Barrie who I met at an awards ceremony. We chatted about his comedy career, cancel culture & why it's not ok to make offensive jokes about people with a disability. He told me about his kids who both have a disability & what he's learnt from them & we chatted about disability too. He told me he knew Chris who won Strictly last year & I said I would like to do Strictly to represent people with a learning disability like me!Please go & check out Alistair's career on his website!https://www.alistairbarrie.com/

I chatted with artist Minty King about her career as an artist and illustrator. She told me about the art workshops and events she runs in Manchester with students who have SEN & I told her about what I made for my GSCSE Art. We talked about how Art should be able to be inclusive to everyone & I told her I was a judge for a recent children's art competition alongside another judge Julia Donaldson who wrote kids story book The Gruffalo. You can buy products she has made with some of her groups. The link is below. https://www.sapphirepartnership.com/category/all-products

This episode of my podcast is very special. I chatted with Gareth and John from the Dublin Welsh Male Voice Choir.They told me all about how the choir formed many years ago and we chatted about some of their past concerts and we chatted about some of the songs that they perform in their concerts. We also paid a lovely tribute to my uncle who was a long standing member of the choir. If you would like to know more about the choir, please go and check out their website. They are looking for new members too!https://dublinwelsh.com/

I chatted with actor Peter Caulfield about his new upcoming play called Two that will be on at Greenwich Theatre from 21st of August to the 12th of September. He will be starring in it alongside my actress friend Kellie Shirley. Tickets are on sale now. For more information and to book tickets, go to the theatre website. the link is below.https://greenwichtheatre.org.uk/events/two/

I recently chatted with one of our charity Mencap Myth Busters who is called Michael Beynon. He has run in the London Marathon to help raise money and awareness for Mencap a few times, He is also a Rotarian and has achieved a lot of amazing things in his life and he has has a learning disability. Also, His step Dad Stephen will be taking on a big fundraising challenge to help raise money for Mencap soon, so please donate if you can by going to this link!https://www.justgiving.com/page/stephen-walker-1?utm_campaign=lc_frp_share_transaction_fundraiser_page_launched&utm_content=28d2e252-aebc-4665-a133-9b0658fe0723&utm_medium=email&utm_source=postoffice&utm_term=1739306976482

My chat with Junior Doctor Grace Spence Green. She became a person with a disability in 2018 after she was involved in an accident. She has written a fab new book called To Exist As I Am and you can buy it online from book stores like Waterstones!https://www.waterstones.com/book/to-exist-as-i-am/grace-spence-green//9781800814486?utm_source=awin&awaid=3787&gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=22647730732&gclid=CjwKCAjwgb_CBhBMEiwA0p3oODI0UTAVGWF2JV27AWVcXkPDEApmsWcYsryYsSE7XGSxvtbElbanORoCEbcQAvD_BwE

I interviewed Irish singer & Songwriter Gavin Friday who is also my lovely u2 family for my Podcast. We chatted about his own music career and his album Ecce Homo, we chatted about our Dublin connections, we talked about our u2 family connections & he told me about his creative consultant role with the band. We also chatted about what inspires us & angers us & he told me a story about my cousin Richard aka 'Dik' back in the Virgin Prunes days!

I chatted with Emma Steel from Every Cherry Publishing. She created an imprint that will help children with a disability to access reading and story books. I got involved with Every Cherry Publishing last year as they invited me to do an audio voice over for their version of my fave all time children's story, The Wizard of Oz and I got to read and record and channel ' My inner Dorothy! ' website : https://www.everycherry.com/

I chatted with my friend Mark Cutter aka The Man in the Purple Hat about our own lived experiences of having a disability, the differences between learning difficulty and learning disability, the medical model of learning disability & the social model of disability and what change we can make when we lobby for change. We also talked about our own work careers and what we do now and chatted about my Podcast too!

For this episode of my Podcast, I am joined for a chat by my lovely friend and actress Sally Phillips. She is currently starring in a wonderful new BBC Sitcom show called Austin which you can now watch on BBC I-Player! We chatted about the recent final Bridget Jones Movie Mad About the Boy & her character Shazza. We also chatted about the world of learning disability and why we need to see more people with a learning disability being seen positively in the media like TV and film & she talked about her own experience of becoming a mother to her son Olly who has Downs Syndrome and what he has achieved!