Lived Experience – What Is It?

Lived experience refers to a person’s firsthand, personal knowledge and understanding. This is gained through direct involvement in everyday life, which often differs from a trained view or theories, that might be taught.

It’s can be used in areas like:

• Social sciences and research: To highlight how individuals experience racism, disability, illness, poverty or mental health.

• Policy and advocacy: To center the voices of people directly affected by an issue. This helps to insure that solutions are informed by those with real-world insight.

For example, I also have lived experience of homelessness and offer insights that can’t be fully captured by statistics or academic analysis alone. I do this on the Ministry of Housing Social Residents Panel. Also how fair rents and a secure how can help us following a change of circumstance.

My Lived Experience

• Social Housing & Homelessness – Long term social tenant who has been homeless in temporary accommodation.
• Rents – How fair rent can help turn our lives around
• Mental Health – Looking back over 50 yrs of adversity & passionate about peer support, using our resilience as a strength.
• Single Parenting – A fathers perspective and some of the stigma faced by men.
• Kidney Patient- Transplant patient of 29 years.
• Sugar Addiction – What I used to turn to, as I tried make myself feel better with my mental health

A Little Bit About me

Stuart is just your typical working-class man in his late 50’s, who has worked since he was 16 in mainly manual work. Honest, down to earth and working class living in social housing. Originally as a child, Stuart wanted to be an actor, after becoming fascinated with voices and was always very creative. Having strict parents and combined with kidney problems from a young age, it was not to be.

So, Stuart set his sights on joining the Royal Navy. After passing all the tests, unfortunately he failed the medical because of his earlier kidney problems, which started when he was 10. So, Stuart continued in manual work, until diagnosed with chronic kidney disease in 1994.

There is no cure for CKD as its known, on treatment in the form of either dialysis, or a kidney transplant. As the kidney problems he suffered as a child, had finally caught up with him, he felt this was like a recurring theme happening in his life and wondered, why me? After being rehoused by the local council, Stuart was eventually was called up for a kidney transplant on the 5^{th of} December 1995.

He knew he had been given another chance, after struggling on dialysis and struggling to perform or work any other job. Stuart then set about getting back to work, in various manual jobs. This included labouring and heavy lifting, as well as working in many warehouses. Stuart did this alongside performing his voices.