Eight-year-old Sarah grips her mother’s hand tightly as they walk into the local shopping centre to try on some new shoes for school. She feels her heart beating faster. Her breathing becomes shallow and quick. She feels light-headed and her throat begins to swell before uncontrollably spiralling into a coughing fit. Trying not to vomit in front of the sales assistant, she can see the confusion in her mother’s face. Sarah’s cheeks flush red as the embarrassment begins to take over. Feelings of guilt, imperfection and fear wash over her and settle deep inside her thoughts. “Why can’t I just be normal, like all the other kids?” she asks herself. Sarah and her mother leave the store without the shoes and she takes it upon herself to write her mum an apology letter as soon as they return home in attempt to rid herself of the overwhelming humiliation she has caused.
This sequence of events happens again when Sarah goes to
