gracesg

On the 25th October 2018, from my hospital bed, I began to write. At first it was a way to anchor myself to the strange new reality I had found myself in, but as I wrote, as I learnt, I began to think this could be something bigger than just my diary. Every thought, every interaction, every reflection on this journey I would chronicle on scrap paper, iPhone notes, emails to myself- and slowly, painstakingly, that has turned into a book, TO EXIST AS I AM. I’m so grateful to the team at Wellcome and Profile for seeing the potential in this. This has been the best thing I’ve ever done, and I can’t wait for you to read it. It’s out on June 5th, but as a new author, pre-orders massively help with visibility so I’d be so grateful if you’d considering ordering ahead of publication using the link in my bio or from your chosen bookstore!

Thank you for all the lovely messages, I am so happy that I can share this wonderful experience and the talent of @jemisha_maadhavji . It was such a privilege to be painted by her. Thank you Jemisha for making me feel so seen and thank you for always sharing your gorgeous home cooked food with me when we were filming. I wouldn’t have wanted to do this with anyone else! I can’t wait to see what you do in the future because I think its going to be pretty amazing!! If I could tell seven year old me who would watch Black Book reruns all summer at my MaMa’s house that I would do a television show with Bill Bailey 20 years later she would be THRILLED. Grateful to @alexiavogden for being so vulnerable with me on camera, grateful to my A&E team for allowing a camera crew to hang around, grateful to be able to do things like this and bang on about disability on TV!! 💙💙💙

✨ ‘This book is extraordinary’ MIRANDA HART ✨ ‘Life-affirming’ VIV GROSKOP ✨ ‘Astonishing, important, and truly radical ‘ POLLY MORLAND At the age of twenty-two, Grace Spence Green’s spine was broken and her life changed course. One day, she was in hospital supporting patients, the next she was one herself. The 2026 @womensprize longlisted book for Non-Fiction, #ToExistAsIAm by Grace Spence Green, is out in paperback today 💚 Over the years that followed, words like healing and recovery took on new meanings. Some emotions, like sadness and self-pity, dimmed. Others were heightened, and Grace learned to embrace them all: anger at a world ill-equipped to accommodate her new body; passion to demand change; and joy found in community, nature and wild swimming. Through her powerful story, Grace shows how we can come back to ourselves after trauma and fight for change while joyously embracing life exactly as we are.

A brilliant intense read of the extraordinary and life changing experiences of @gracesg now in paperback… #womensprizefornonfiction @womensprize

“To Exist As I Am demonstrates how it is possible to turn the most horrific misfortune into a force for advocacy and change – it is a poignant account of resilience, and an accessible and powerful memoir. I absolutely loved it.” @nicolawilliamswriter , 2026 Women’s Prize for Non-Fiction judge Chronicling author @gracesg journey from idealistic medical student to spinal-injury patient, and then qualified doctor and vocal disability activist, the grippingly honest ‘To Exist As I Am’ is a vital account of care, what it means to heal, and the many shapes recovery and self-acceptance can take. Read our interview with Grace to find out more (link in bio).

I am so thrilled to announce my paperback cover in gorgeous green! Coming in March 💚🌲🌴🥑🌳🐢🥦🍃🍏📗🦚🫛🥬

What a fabulously rich and inspiring longlist this is – showing once again why the @womensprize for non-fiction is such a vital part of modern literary culture, championing and elevating the voices of women who write worldwide 💃💪📚 There is politics, memoir, science, art, history and biography on this list, seven books by debut authors, & some of the most beautiful written prose out there. I’m particularly delighted to see @lyse.doucet ’s superb The Finest Hotel in Kabul, such a humane account of recent Afghan history seen through the eyes of the staff at the InterContinental Hotel. Likewise @sarah_grace_perry ’s extraordinary Death of an Ordinary Man, her hauntingly beautiful account of the death of her beloved father-in-law. @lea.ypi ’s brilliant Indignity interweaves a gripping story of political upheaval in the Balkans with her own family’s personal history. And @ece.temelkuran ’s Nation of Strangers, just released, is absolutely essential reading on exile, migration and belonging. Last but not least, congratulations to @gracesg on the longlisting of To Exist As I Am – her immensely powerful account of experiencing a life-changing spinal injury as a medical student. I am quite certain every other books on the longlist will be just as riveting and I cannot wait to read them all. Huge, huge congratulations, you absolute longlist literary queens!!!! 🫅 🥷💅 Just wonderful news for you all 🎉📚🤩

We are so thrilled to share that #ToExistAsIAm by Grace Spence Green has been longlisted for the 2026 Women’s Prize for Non-Fiction! Huge congratulations to @gracesg for this incredible, well deserved achievement ✨ Praise for To Exist As I Am: 🧡 ‘Inspiring and life-affirming’ VIV GROSKOP 🧡 ‘Astonishing, important, and truly radical ... this book is completely transformative’ POLLY MORLAND 🧡 ‘Surrendering to what happens to us, to find joy and meaning in spite of it, is the bravest and most wise choice we can make. This book is extraordinary’ MIRANDA HART #WomensPrizeforNonFiction #WomensPrize @womensprize

The new episode of our accessible travel podcast, Back Up and Thriving, is here 🎧 Junior doctor and disability advocate @gracesg joins Sophie Elwes for an honest, powerful conversation about spinal cord injury, identity and travel. Grace shares her experience of returning to medical school as a wheelchair user, challenging ableism in healthcare, and why visibility and community matter. She also talks candidly about travel - from her first post-injury trip to Venice to more recent adventures in Georgia and Azerbaijan - with plenty of practical tips along the way. 🎧 Listen now via the link in bio This resource is gratefully supported and funded by the @motabilityfoundation What part of Grace’s story resonated with you most? 👇 #spinalcordinjury #spinalcordrecovery #accessibletravel #travelpodcast #disabilityrepresentation #wheelchairlife #accessibility #disabledandproud #medicalprofessionals

So my book tour is complete for now, the last three events in October were a lovely way to end this promotional period; a wonderful conversation with @mariakhansa for the festival of encounters, an interview with Adrian Chiles who asked such nice questions and there I got a taste of a certain DIVA (to name no names), And then finally a quick jaunt to Durham with gorgeous @gabrielwestonalive for dinner and drinks who always makes me laugh and feel sane in the sometimes chaos that is medicine and book promotion. Our event felt more like a catch up among friends- one unexpected gift of this book is connecting with other doctor writers that I admire so much. So it’s done! But it has felt done for a while. I love when people send me photos of my book that they’ve seen in a window or in a shop, but the disconnect between myself and this physical object is strange. It has begun to feel like it was always out there in the world, that I didn’t need to write it at all! It just appeared, peeking out from a pile, sometimes perched facing outwards on its own shelf. Five years spent incubating in my brain and then it was born, already able to stand on its own, a fully formed thing. The question to round up many of these book events has been: What’s next? Because this book I was once so enmeshed in has closed and is no longer open to edits. How do I say I want to do something longer than an Instagram caption and shorter than a book? I spent years collecting nice words and sentences every day for this one book, and now I find I’m still collecting, but they seem lost, untethered without a greater purpose. I’ll keep going but it feels a little aimless. I felt so anchored to this goal, to write and write to get to the point I am now. But now that the umbilical cord has been cut, my book is out there meeting new people, and I am just a floating placenta- (Can you tell I’ve spent too much time on the neonatal unit) Not sure what’s next but it will be….something?

💭 How does your intervention impact disabled people? 💭 How do we make generalised policies which also respect diverse disabled experiences? 💭 How can we meaningfully include disabled voices in decision making which isn't just tokenism? 🔥"Diversity in Disability" will explore all these questions and more 🔥 With a fantastic panel of young, disabled, health professionals from around the world, this is a much needed webinar in the global public health space 🙌🏿🙌🏼🙌🏽 👉 Don't miss out! 🗓 Friday 5th December 2025 🕐 1300 UTC+1 #GlobalPublicHealth #YouthDisability #YouthLeadership #PublicHealth

Why do some people still feel discomfort around the subject of disability? Writer and doctor Grace Spence Green (@gracesg ) breaks it down for us. Grace's book 'To Exist As I Am: A Doctor's Notes on Recovery and Radical Acceptance' is out now. Alt text: This video shows Grace, a young woman with dark hair and glasses, inside Wellcome Collection's Reading Room. She wears a yellow pullover, glasses with frames to match, and sits in her wheelchair with a bookshelf behind her.