Moving for Tourette’s

Posted 6hrs ago
by Ellie Strouther

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15 Minutes a Day, One Promise to Myself

My name is Ellie, I’m 34, and I live in Derbyshire with my husband and our three-year-old daughter. I have Tourette syndrome, ADHD and Functional Neurological Disorder (FND). I run my own embroidery business and also work as a Pilates instructor, so life is rarely quiet or predictable.

Over the past couple of months, like many people across the country, I’ve been taking part in Moving for Tourette’s to raise money and awareness for Tourettes Action. Participants were encouraged to choose their own challenge, and I decided on something that sounded simple enough, 15 minutes of exercise every day for one month and four days.

BUT I wouldn’t be choosing the exercise.

Instead, I handed that responsibility over to my followers on TikTok and Facebook.

Of course, they immediately chose the most ridiculous and challenging options they could think of.

The challenge began with 15 minutes of hopscotch. If you’ve never tried doing hopscotch continuously for that long, I can assure you it’s far harder than it sounds. As the weeks went on, my daily activities included skipping up the street, jogging around a field, balancing on an incredibly tiny seesaw, and plenty of other unexpected forms of movement.

The grand finale? Trampolining. Twice in one month. For anyone who knows me, they’ll understand why that deserves its own special mention.

While the challenge was physically demanding, it also reminded me why I spend so much time creating content about Tourette’s online. Over the past year, as I’ve shared more of my life on social media, I’ve been continually surprised by just how misunderstood Tourette syndrome still is.

Many people still only associate Tourette’s with swearing, when in reality it affects people in countless different ways.

The challenge wasn’t without its setbacks. In the middle of the month, I missed four days because I experienced seizures related to my condition. It would have been easy to stop there, but I had made a promise to myself. I wasn’t going to let those missed days become an excuse to give up.

So I carried on.

Those extra four days at the end weren’t just about completing a challenge. They were about keeping a promise. They were about proving to myself that even when things don’t go to plan, I can keep moving forward.

My personal motto throughout the challenge became simple:

I can. I will.

By the end, I’d raised awareness, raised money, made people laugh, and perhaps encouraged a few people to think differently about Tourette syndrome.

If there is one thing I hope people take away from my challenge, it’s that disabilities and neurological conditions don’t define what someone can achieve. Sometimes we may need to adapt, pause, or take a different route, but we can still keep going.

And sometimes, that means spending 15 minutes doing hopscotch because the internet told you to.

For Tourette’s awareness, that’s a challenge I’m glad I accepted.

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