Hello, I’m Wilamena Dyer, a musician, cello player & percussionist. I am a 17-year-old girl who attends school, surfs, blogs, bakes, and travels, and I also have Tourette’s syndrome and OCD. I don’t let my neurological conditions hold me back!
I am writing this blog to bring awareness and help others with these conditions. This blog is about my story, my daily life, my tics, my struggles and little tips on how to cope.
Media Interviews and Journalist Requests
I have been a BBC Young Reporter of the Year and interviewed musicians about Tourette’s Syndrome and also been the subject of many media interviews raising awareness about Tourette’s Syndrome and neurodiversity with many top organisations, including the BBC News Channel, BBC Radio 2, BBC Radio5 Live, RTL TV in Germany, ITV Good Morning Britain, Channel 5 TV News, Cornwall Live, BBC Spotlight, BBC Points West and ITV Westcountry TV, Heathrow Airport and Lloyds Bank as well as many newspapers, podcasts, videos and magazine articles. I welcome every opportunity to talk to the media and journalists about Tourette’s Syndrome and what it’s really like, my life and how music helps with my situation, so please do reach out.
Tourette’s Charities
I am proud to be a champion of the UK charity Tourette’s Action and to be associated with the USA Tourette’s awareness charity NJCTS.
So, welcome to TicTastic! Xx
MY LATEST BLOGS
Ticmas Day 3! Hospital appointment and medication for Tourette’s Syndrome
Hello everyone, I hope that you are all having a good day full of festivities. For Ticmas day 3 I take you with me to a hospital appointment and then I sit down and chat about medication for Tourette’s Syndrome. I talk about my experience of taking clonidine for Tourette’s Syndrome and all of the pros […]
Ticmas! Day 2 – Tic Attacks
Hello everyone, I hope that you are all having a good day! Welcome to day 2 of Ticmas! For today’s video I sat down and had a little chat all about tic attacks. I hope that you enjoy watching it and if you haven’t seen day 1 already then go check that out on my […]
Ticmas! Day 1
Hello everyone, I hope that you are all having a good day and are enjoying the lead up to Christmas! From yesterday until Christmas Eve I am going to be posting a video everyday, which I am calling 12 days of Ticmas! Yesterday’s video was me and my sister baking and chatting about how sometimes […]
Tic attacks and Tourette’s Syndrome
Hello everyone, I hope that you are all ok and having a good day! 🙂 I had my first tic attack at the weekend in a very long time which was a bit frustrating. It as quite scary, but luckily my best friend was there in the room and knew what to do. She went […]
The whisper challenge!
Hello everyone! The summer has officially come to a close and I am looking forward to returning to school, but obviously I am feeling the end of summer blues and the September nerves! This has seemed to bring back some wordy vocal tics, which have been hibernating for quite a while now! My current vocal […]
Fidget Toy’s Unboxing, Tourette’s Edition
Hello everyone, I hope that you are all doing ok and making the most of the last bit of summer. Earlier in the summer my sister Martha-Lilly and I filmed this fidget toy unboxing for my channel but I forgot about it for a while which is why I am only posting it now! So […]
TicTastic shoutout on ‘Phone a Friend’ with George Ezra and Ollie MN
Hello everyone, I hope that you are all ok and enjoying the summer! So during the lockdown my Mum and Sister started listening to this podcast by Ollie MN and George Ezra called phone a friend, which as the name suggests, they phone each other once a week and chat about pretty much everything. It […]
Lockdown Blues
Hello guys, My big sister and musician Marley and I were bored in lockdown so we decided to write a song which we have called “lockdown blues” all about the COVID-19 Coronavirus crisis. It was a bit of fun and whilst I did it my tourettes did not bother me! Music keeps me well and […]
Lunchtime Concert
School is still out due to the coronavirus, but I still have to practice hard and have my virtual online music concerts to do. At the moment that means a solo from my home for the school’s YouTube page of lunchtime concerts! So here is ‘General life’ by Emmanuel Sejourne played on my marimba. My […]
I’m Back! 🙂
Hello everyone, I am sorry that you haven’t heard from me in a while! Life got very busy all at once, so I haven’t had a chance to catch you up on everything. As I am now at home in quarantine I decided that I would start making videos again. I am going to start […]
Exciting BBC Radio 2 Interview!
UPDATE: My interview is now due to go out in Michael Ball’s special Children in Need special show on Sunday 17th Love 2019 between 11-1pm live from the Savoy. —————– Hello everyone, As you may know I go to something called Tic Fest which is run by Tourette’s Action. Tic Fest is where families with […]
I crumpled!!
Hello everyone, Today things didn’t quite go to plan because right now I am still supposed to be on a National Children’s Orchestra (NCO) course, but sadly this time my tics just got in the way so I have had to come home. Sometimes you just can’t work around things or your Tourette’s just gets […]
TicFest
Hello everybody, I have recently come back from something called TicFest which is when families with children who have Tourette’s syndrome get to come together for a weekend residential and meet each other whilst doing different activities. It gives everyone a great opportunity to chat with other people who are in similar situations. There are […]
Eden Project Adventure
Hello everyone, the other day I went with my parents to this place called the Eden Project for the day. I have been to the Eden Project many many times before, yet there is always something new to go and see! I was a bit nervous about going because it can sometimes be quite busy […]
New research project into an app to manage Tourettes!
Hi everyone, I have recently been involved with a research project that is being run at Nottingham University and supported by Tourette’s Action that is looking for lots of young people with Tourette’s Syndrome to take part. I spent an hour talking with Camilla Babbage, via FaceTime, who is organising this research from Nottingham University. […]
Ups and Downs!
Hello guys, I am really sorry that I haven’t done an update in a while, it is because my tics have had a big flare up again! Overnight during the half term, I started having big full body tics again. I ended up having to miss the first couple of weeks of school after the […]
Pros and Cons of using a wheelchair!
This video is all about the good things and annoying things about being in a wheelchair. I use a wheelchair because I get lots of foot tics. The foot tics can be really severe and painful and can cause damage to muscles or tendons in my feet or ankles. For long distances, or anywhere which […]
Wheelchairs!
Hi everybody recently I have been getting a lot of foot tics meaning that I am now back in my wheelchair and sometimes have to use crutches, which isn’t great. Lots of the time people seem to think that if you need to use a wheelchair it is disabling you more when actually it is […]
Things don’t always go to plan.
Hey, guys, it is my first week back at school and it has been pretty good, but over the weekend I encountered some teasing and laughing because of my tics. Because I board at school, my best friend from school and I met up with some of our friends from the boys boarding house to […]
