062: Leah Churchley on Combatting Chronic Illness with Crafting

The SweetGeorgia Show

Today Felicia once again chats with Leah Churchley. You might remember Leah from episode 16 of the podcast where she talked her about her experiences with anxiety and how she managed it with knitting. That was back in October 2015, so it’s been about 2 years since we’ve heard from her. Since that episode, lots has happened in Leah’s life, including coming to work at SweetGeorgia as our Digital and Educational Media Assistant.

Please join us for this week’s episode as Felicia and Leah catch up and discuss how craft and the community around it can help us face life’s most difficult challenges.

In this episode, we talk about:

• 1:40 Leah fills us in on what’s been happening in her life career-wise since she was on the show 2 years ago
• 3:31 Felicia chats with Leah about her diagnoses with Crohn’s disease in December of 2016
• 7:31 Leah explains Crohn’s disease and the “joys” of steroids
• 10:40 Chatting about how being diagnosed with a chronic illness affected Leah’s career as a web developer and spurred her decision to contact Felicia about a job at SweetGeorgia
• 15:00 How working at SweetGeorgia helped Leah cope with chronic illness and learn what she really needed in a job
• 18:20 Using the crafting community and knitting to combat loneliness, depression, and stress
• 24:16 Felicia asks Leah how she accomplishes all her crafting while dealing with the fatigue that goes along with Crohn’s Disease
• 28:30 What projects Leah is currently working on
• 33:45 Felicia asks Leah what advice she would give other people suffering from a chronic disease
• 36:13 Felicia’s final notes and podcast giveaway!

Links and Things

Here’s where to find Leah online:

• Blog: www.thecraftycolon.com
• Etsy store (a portion of all sales go towards supporting Crohn’s and Colitis Canada): www.etsy.com/ca/shop/TheCraftyColon
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/leelabasiccable