Sense Awards 2024: Campaigner of the Year
Dr Aimee Grant
Dr Aimee Grant is an academic who uses a wheelchair and was diagnosed as Autistic in 2019, at the age of 37.
A year on, she had an ectopic pregnancy and needed emergency surgery – a traumatic experience made extremely painful for her in a ward filled with bright lights, noisy conversations and strong smells of bleach and perfume.
The experience inspired her to begin researching the experiences of maternity care for Autistic people – an area that had barely been explored before. Her videos, “Autistic pregnancy, birth and beyond: your questions answered”, have been viewed thousands of times.
Her focus has now widened, and Aimee, a Senior Lecturer in Public Health at Swansea University, is currently leading an eight-year project to understand the reproductive health experiences of Autistic women and others with wombs, from beginning their periods all the way through to menopause.
She’s aiming to carry out 1,000 interviews during the project and is jointly leading the study with a community council of 11 Autistic people. Aimee believes her groundbreaking research could ultimately save the lives of Autistic people, who may currently avoid seeking help in a medical emergency, such as heavy bleeding during pregnancy.
She also hopes it will lead to providing care that better meets Autistic people’s needs, which could reduce rates of post-natal depression and anxiety.
Having faced significant workplace barriers earlier in her career, before joining Swansea University, Aimee is also tireless in calling out ableism and other forms of discrimination, whether directed at herself or others.
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