'My wheelchair gives me freedom I wouldn't have'

Emma Daniels has been posting videos showing how she is learning to walk again

A 21-year-old with a rare condition hopes her social media posts about learning to walk again will change people's perceptions of using a mobility aid.

Emma Daniels, from Norwich, was diagnosed with Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (EDS), which affects connective tissue, after she was misdiagnosed with the autoimmune disease lupus in 2021.

In 2023, her EDS worsened and she lost the ability to walk.

She said: "Although you might think it's sad to see someone using a mobility aid, for me it provides so much freedom that otherwise I wouldn't have."

As a child, Emma did gymnastics, dance and trampolining, but suffered joint pain and fatigue.

She said: "When I had to start using a wheelchair at 19, that was really difficult, especially at that age.

"A lot of people, including myself, are quite focused on looks and I didn't want to look different to my peers.

"When I'm out and about, sometimes people look at me and they feel bad for me.

"For me it's freedom... without it, I wouldn't be able to do anything that I'm able to do."

'Less self-conscious'

Emma says although she found it "really difficult" to start using a wheelchair at 19, it has given her "freedom"

To almost half a million followers across Instagram and Tik Tok, she has been posting videos about learning to walk again after using social media to find other mobility aid users, which she said helped her feel "less self-conscious".

While documenting the reality of the condition, she hopes to focus on positive moments of progress, including standing up to cook dinner with her mum or taking a walk along the beach.

Videos of her at Able2B, a Norwich gym she has been attending for more than six months, have been seen by millions.

Emma says the training at Able2B gym has helped her reduce the impact of EDS

EDS can cause painful and unstable joints which dislocate easily.

The gym has been teaching her how to move in a way that reduces the condition's impact.

She said: "If you'd told me even in January this time last year that I would be able to walk a little bit, relearning how to walk... I would have laughed in your face.

"The fact they are able to give people so much hope that otherwise they might have lost is incredible."

In June, Emma has set her sights on walking 1km (0.6 miles), whether that is "holding on to people some of the way, walking it completely independently, [or] holding onto a frame for a bit of it."