My name is Jessica Taylor-Bearman and I'm an award-winning author and disabled advocate. As a teenager I became seriously unwell after contracting a flu virus, which my body never recovered from. I lost the ability to speak, move or eat and spent four continuous years in hospital and a further eight years completely bedridden, living in a hospital bed in a world of one room.

I wrote my first book from my sick bed, only able to type on a smartphone and over a long time, A Girl Behind Dark Glasses was written and published. I wrote the follow up, A Girl in One Room, that continues the story and then the final book A Girl Beyond Closed Door, about managing motherhood with chronic illness and managing to get back out into the world.

I do talks about my story, how I became an author, how we can face adversity and still manage to thrive, how creativity, art and writing saved my life and helped me cope with severe levels of pain.

I also ran my own charity for ten years from my room and my sick bed helping severely unwell children.