Ruth’s StoryFinding Freedom Through Art

Isolation and anxiety have been the biggest struggles in recent years for Ruth, who has spina bifida hydrocephalus and scoliosis, and is paralysed from the waist down.

“I went through horrible back pain for years, then I had the surgery,” she says of the spinal rods
that were fitted when she was 10. “I was in recovery for months after that and then we went
straight into Covid. That was quite a lot of isolation and not seeing people.”

It was “quite a difficult time for me”, says Ruth, an only child, who lives with her parents Annette
and Timothy Cotter in Fermoy, Co Cork. But when she spotted a notice advertising a Helium
Arts workshop on the wall of the outpatients department in Cork University Hospital (CUH) and
told her parents it was something she would like to do, it heralded the start of a positive change.

“I have always been interested in art and creative science and activities,” she says. Since
attending that first workshop at Mayfield Arts Centre in Cork city two years ago, she has been
involved in other camps during the school holidays and attends monthly meet-ups.

“At home, I have sketch books that I am always drawing in and working on. “I feel I can really express myself through art and my creations. I am confident in my art and what I make and whatever method I use.”

For Ruth, art can be like an escape; therapeutic and relaxing. She also enjoys the company of
other teenagers she has met through Helium Arts, who, like her, are coping with lifelong
physical conditions and share an interest in art.

“We would find that we had other things in common. Some of them are wheelchair users as
well. It is nice to have that friendship with others that relate to me and my experiences.”

She often encounters physical barriers to participation in activities but that is not a problem with Helium Arts. “Accessibility can be hard to find. I use a power wheelchair and it’s even harder”

In a three-day Halloween half-term camp during 2023, the group focused on completing work to
exhibit in the Helium Arts Showcase

“We were given different methods of creating and we got to choose what we would like to do,
what we would like to have shown at the showcase. I am doing a lot of paintings and drawings.”

Ruth completed her Junior Cert last June, and says “when I leave school, art is something I
would definitely like to do in some way. I would like to do something creative like that.”