Greetings Earthlings! 🙂
This week I’d like to discuss a celebrity with autism that has been featuring in the news a lot lately- Anne Hegerty, better known as the Governess on the ITV quiz show ‘The Chase‘ in the UK. Anne is an elite quizzer, one of six, whom challengers head off against to win large sums of cash for their team.
As an avid fan of quiz shows I’ve been fascinated by Anne and her brain for some time, and even more so after I read about her diagnosis of Asperger’s syndrome at the age of 45. Before her diagnosis, Anne was on the brink of homelessness and struggling to “keep it all together”. However, following her diagnosis, she was introduced to the world of elite quizzing by her social worker and the rest is history! 🙂
Most recently, Anne has been appearing in the news due to her participation in the ITV reality show ‘I’m a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here!”. For those of you unfamiliar with the show, a group of celebrities (although the term is often used loosely these days due to the decreasing calibre of celebs willing to participate 😛 ) are deployed into the Australian jungle for a few weeks and the public votes to subject their chosen celeb to ‘bush-tucker trials’ to win their campsite meals and luxuries. These trials are torturous ordeals where the celeb is often exposed to creepy crawlies, may have to wade through slime/crocodile infested waters, could be buried alive (with unknown nasties) and may even have to eat a range of unpleasant jungle critters- meals often including some “unsavory” parts of the kangaroo/crocodile anatomy…😬
As you can imagine, this is not exactly the most hospitable of environments for the average autist!
In fact, Anne broke down in tears on the first night in the jungle as she struggled to adjust to life outside her comfort zone, and was very close to saying she couldn’t do it.
But Anne has persevered, and even powered through some disgusting bush-tucker trials which you can see in the links below (I know I wouldn’t be able for them!):
She has been widely praised during the shows’ run for talking openly about her diagnosis with her camp mates and raising awareness about the every day challenges of living with Asperger’s.
Here she is opening up about her struggles in the jungle:
You can see her chat a little bit more about her life with Asperger’s here on the ITV chat show ‘Loose Women‘.
I’d just like to finish this post by wishing Anne the best of luck in her remaining time in the jungle (she’s one of the favourites to win) and to conclude with a fantastic quote from her about having Asperger’s syndrome:
“People say to me, ‘I understand you suffer from Asperger’s’ or ‘you suffer from autism’, and I’m like, ‘no, I have Asperger’s, I suffer from idiots!” 😂
Love this woman! 😀
It’s such a pleasure to witness to a real aspergirl showing the world that one should not be defined by a diagnosis, but by the strength of your actions 🙂
Have a great weekend Earthlings! 🙂
Aoife
A Is For Aoife Not Autism 