Thriving Beyond Survival with Safeera Hussainy

Sessions From The Edge - Episode 6

Introduction

Welcome to an amazing 2025 Year-End Sessions From The Edge, where we meet the people whose lives have been reshaped by illness, caregiving, and the work of guiding others through complexity.

In this session, Paul is joined by Prof. Safeera Hussainy, senior cancer researcher, pharmacist, academic, carer, mother, and author, to explore what it means to live with a chronic, invisible condition when medicine has no clean answers.

Safeera shares her experience of developing severe, treatment-resistant eczema during pregnancy and COVID lockdowns, navigating years of pain, mobility loss, medical dismissal, and identity disruption while continuing to care for young children and critically ill parents.

This is not a conversation about quick fixes.

It’s about persistence, dignity, and learning how to live well inside constraint.

To my surprise Safeera even refers to my book, “Decode Your Diagnosis”, as providing inspiration to change from living with a chronic condition to thriving beyond survival. Here’s the link to my book.

In this video, Safeera speaks openly about:

• Living with severe eczema as an invisible disability

• Being dismissed and misdiagnosed within conventional healthcare

• Decoding illness beyond symptom management

• The role of functional integration, diet, and gut health

• Navigating pregnancy, lockdowns, and chronic pain

• Using the Sunflower lanyard and advocating for hidden disability

• Caring for parents through long-term illness and dialysis

• Redesigning career, workload, and expectations

• Writing her memoir Molten as an act of reclamation

• Redefining what “thriving” actually means

This conversation is for:

• People living with chronic or invisible conditions

• Carers carrying long-term emotional and physical load

• Health professionals questioning symptom-only models of care

• Anyone closing the year exhausted, reflective, and still standing

Well, that’s a wrap for another session and my first year on Substack. Take care, stay safe and see you in 2026 for an exciting year of growth for you and Sessions From The Edge.

If you want to know moore about Safeera then subcribe to her Substack below.