Member Spotlight: Danielle Connolly Wins Health Union’s Rookie of the Year for the Social Health Awards

Danielle smiling and posed in front of a palm tree and building behind her. Courtesy, Danielle Connolly

By Arielle Dance, Diversability

Danielle Connolly (she/her) was recently named the Health Union’s Rookie of the Year for Social Health Awards. The winners will be honored at Digital Pharma East in Philadelphia in September. In addition to this honor, Danielle also spoke at the Youth Leadership Forum sponsored by Partners for Youth with Disabilities. Her workshop was titled “Building Skills, Confidence, and Disability Pride by Creating Content”. 

By day, Danielle can be found creating engaging social media content, crafting, or participating in adaptive sailing. In her social life, Danielle is hungry to try new hobbies she thought she’d never be able to do because of her disability. Danielle was born with an unknown muscle disease. No provider has ever been able to identify it by name but that does not keep the discomfort away. 

In an attempt to become more knowledgeable about her mysterious illness, Danielle is a patient in a lab that conducts diagnostic clinical trials. “It has been interesting having a solid diagnosis of a muscle disease since birth, but at the same time having no frame of reference for how to live with it…In some ways, while having nothing to Google for a diagnosis is freeing, I still pursue a diagnosis because knowledge is power.” She is grateful for being disabled her entire life so she does not have to mourn what life pre-diagnosis may have been like. She has grown with the disability and recognized the positive impacts it has had on her life. 

Being disabled has taught Danielle how to cope with whatever life throws her way. She admits that sometimes she has had to “surrender to the unknown” in all areas of life. She recognizes that humans have limited control on the happenings around them. Living with this philosophy empowers her and allows her to be open to new opportunities. 

Acknowledgement: Thank you to Danielle Connolly, a member of the Diversability Leadership Collective, for sharing your experiences with us.