To want to share this article...

[Behooven]

Melanie Reid is tetraplegic after a riding accident in 2010. I've read her columns since before her accident. Sometimes what she says totally resonates with me, like this about women having insecurities about how they look. From today's Times.

God yes, good extract. I remember a few years back, when I was very ill, thinking if I get through this I will worry less about what people think of me (I was very, very self-conscious). I adhere to that for the most part and metaphorically stick a finger up to people who criticise my appearance, but it is hard. You only have to read some of the threads here to see how crazily critical we women are of each other's appearance.

I spent so long worrying about other's perception of me and trying to find ways to make myself acceptable in their eyes that I stopped appreciating what I did have - my health. Now I strive to be fit and healthy and even though I do get the odd comment (a couple of memorable ones recently: 'I have seen more meat on a butcher's pencil', 'if you ate a tomato you'd look pregnant' - both supposedly said in jest) I find I don't care - this attitude has been quite liberating for me.

Exactly! Sometimes it takes something so serious to give perspective.