Facial Palsy is lonely, find someone else who has Facial Palsy

People with Facial Palsy

One of the best things about having facial palsy is the amount of friends I have made because of it.  It's no longer a lonely world where no one else understands the pain of growing up with a wonky smile, these days I feel like I am a member of a very special club, I have made friends from all over the world who understand exactly how I feel.  We all have different degrees of facial palsy, but we all share the common understanding of what a potentially cruel beginning it is in life to be unable to smile normally, but thankfully, most of the people I have met have adapted brilliantly, and being unable to smile normally has not held us back.  There are a couple of groups on Facebook for people with facial palsy or parents of children with facial paralysis and it's good to know other people who are in a similar situation to talk to.  There is a new group called Courage to Smile which has been set up recently and it is growing quite rapidly.

If you have facial palsy or are a parent of a child with facial paralysis, please feel free to add me on Facebook as a friend.

Facial Palsy is very rare and hence can be quite lonely for people living with it and their families.  Information is not readily available due to there often being no straightforward reason for what causes it, there are many different reasons for its occurrence and doctors are often vague with regards to prognosis.

Support groups on the internet are as follows: -

Facial Paralysis - Yahoo Groups

Ffions friends - a Facebook group

Courage to Smile - a Facebook group

Below is a list of locations in the world where we know people with Facial Palsy can be found, if you want to contact any of these people then please contact me and I will try and help you connect with them.  If you want to be added to this list please let me know.

Locations of people with Facial Paralysis

United Kingdom

Birkenhead, nr Liverpool

Peterborough

Cumbria

Manchester

United States

Seattle/Tacoma, Washington State

US - Auburn, Indiana

Australia

Sydney

Estonia

Facial Palsy in the media

Recently, I have met a lot of new people who have facial palsy, and this is largely due to Shelby Dressel, who has appeared on American Idol in 2010.  It is wonderful that Shelby has had the courage to appear in front of the viewing public of the United States, I know how difficult that must be for anyone with facial palsy, and I am so grateful to her for raising awareness of such an often lonely form of paralysis.

John Hayes who is my local Conservative MP in 2010 also has facial paralysis caused by brain injury I believe.

Other famous people with facial paralysis are Milo Ventimiglia and Sylvester Stallone.  There is also some debate about whether Elvis Presley suffered from mild facial palsy, looking at childhood pictures of him, I think he did have it.