Dating with a disability- Part one

Hi, I'm Rhys, Sophies boyfriend of 8 months. I'm writing this as Sophie asked me to share my experience of dating someone with a chronic illness.



I met Sophie on a dating app in October and she blew me away. We really hit it off and decided to meet up. The first few dates went really well and I looked her up on facebook so that I could add her on there.

This was when I first found out about the illnesses Sophie had. At first, the prospect of this was really scary and became even more so after a bit of time spent googling everything. This all came as a bit of a shock to me, as seeing Sophie you would never be able to tell.

Shortly after, Sophie actually brought this up and was able to explain a bit better. I could tell this was something that was difficult for her, and knew that her telling me all of this could leaving her thinking that she might've scared me away.

But would finding any of this out change anything about the amazing person that I had met?

Since I am here writing this its probably quite obvious that the answer was ‘no'. She is still beautiful, kind, funny and smart. None of that was going to change and why would it?

The time we have spent together has been perfect and I wouldn’t change it for the world. Even though we sometimes have to approach things a different way and take a bit more time doing them. I think this can sometimes be a bit frustrating for Sophie as we can't do things ‘normal' and have to take life a little slower on occasions.

One of the most important thing about our relationship would have to be honesty and being able to talk to each other about anything. I think this has really helped the two of us. I now have a better understanding of some of the limits to what we can do and I think Sophie is more comfortable being able to talk openly about how she is feeling.

Sophie asked if I would add a bit at the end with some tips for dating someone with a chronic illness, but I don't think there is anything special that you shouldn't be doing already for someone you are in a relationship with.

--Rhys