To Exist As I Am

A Doctor's Notes on Recovery and Radical Acceptance

Grace Spence Green

$36.99

Hardback

Forthcoming
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English

Wellcome Collection
05 June 2025

Disability: social aspects; Doctor patient relationship

What do you do when the life you planned is dramatically interrupted? What does it mean to heal, when the world won't stop asking what's wrong with you?

At the age of 22, Grace Spence Green's spine was broken at the fourth thoracic vertebra. One day, she was in hospital supporting patients, the next she was fighting for her own life. To Exist As I Am chronicles her journey from idealistic medical student to spinal-injury patient, to doctor and disabled activist, finding her way back to the wards, and finding her tribe along the way. This life-affirming memoir reframes disability and questions the value we place on independence, in favour of interdependence; the rich networks of care that bind us together, and what love truly looks like. Rather than yearning to be 'fixed', Grace shows how we might fight for change while embracing a joyous life - exactly as we are.

By: Grace Spence Green
Imprint: Wellcome Collection
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Edition: Main
Dimensions: Height: 212mm, Width: 130mm, Spine: 14mm
Weight: 335g
ISBN: 9781800814486
ISBN 10: 1800814488
Pages: 224
Publication Date: 05 June 2025
Audience: General/trade , Professional and scholarly , ELT Advanced , Undergraduate
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Forthcoming

Grace Spence Green is a junior doctor working to challenge the narratives surrounding disability, medicine and identity. In 2018, aged 22 and a 4th year medical student, she sustained a spinal cord injury and is now a full-time wheelchair user. Since her life-changing injury, Grace has become a passionate advocate for the disabled community, writing regularly for the BMJ and Guardian and across TV and radio.

Reviews for To Exist As I Am: A Doctor's Notes on Recovery and Radical Acceptance

Exquisitely written and compelling, this book tells the story of a remarkable doctor. By the end it will have upended the preconceptions many of us hold as to what it is to lead a rich, fulfilled life -- Dr Caroline Elton, psychologist and author of ALSO HUMAN: The Inner Lives of Doctors A story of injury, loss and acceptance that asks us to consider what it truly means to recover. Grace Spence Green shows us how much we can gain when we stop trying to overcome disability and start embracing it as part of what makes us human. Her story is inspiring in the best possible ways as an activist call to arms and a testament to the joy that comes through finding your community -- Professor David Turner, adviser on BBC Disability: A New History