All About Me

Hello lovelies!

Taken on a shoot with Cosmopolitan

I'm Jenny, a thirty-something from a small town in Hampshire, England. I currently live at home with my Mum, Dad, sister, her partner and my adorable nephew, Rory. I also have two brothers who live nearby with their wives (Richard and Lisa, and David and Emma), a sister (Bekkah) and I am also an Auntie to the amazing Noah, Maisie, Teddy and Bonnie. We have two cats called Xena and Lennie, and two dogs - a Golden Retriever called Alfie and a Parsons Jack Russell called Freddie. I also had a beautiful black cat called Jaffa, who my blog was originally named after, but sadly he died at the end of 2018.

I have had problems with my health for a lot of my life and doctors originally thought I had M.E/CFS. However, at the age of 25 I was diagnosed with Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, and since then have been diagnosed with Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome (POTS), Gastroparesis, Intestinal Dysmotility, Bladder Dysfunction and Mast Cell Activation Syndrome. I'm an ambulatory wheelchair user and am also Autistic. I try my best to live my life to the fullest, but my health problems can make it difficult, especially when I'm spending a lot of time at appointments, having tests and operations and feeling generally unwell and in pain.

As a teenager, I had planned to study Medicine at University, but the longer my health problems went on, the more I realised that a career as a Doctor simply wouldn't be right for me. I began to develop clinical depression and an eating disorder, and ended up spending a lot of my teenage years in and out of various hospitals. As my health stabilised a bit, I went back to college to study for a Diploma in Childcare and Education, then onto University to study Childhood and Youth Studies. However, it wasn't meant to be and after a few months I returned home.

I then decided to give The Open University a try, and took up a part-time degree in Psychology, while also working part-time as a Learning Support Assistant in my local Secondary School. Things were relatively good for a few years, but in 2012 my health took a massive dip and I ended up back in hospital. Physically and mentally I was very unwell, so my work and study were put on the back burner while I tried to gain my health back to where it had been before. I saw numerous doctors and specialists, and my diagnosis of M.E/CFS was finally changed to Hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome. It explained so much and was a massive relief to finally start getting some proper answers.

After a couple of years I was well enough to go to college to study for an Access to Higher Education Diploma, with the hope of going on to University to do Occupational Therapy. But I soon realised this wasn't going to be right for me, as the course and job would be too demanding on my health. So I had a think about what I enjoy doing, and kept coming back to how much I love blogging. Journalism seemed like such a natural step! So I found a degree course at a nearby University and finally graduated with a First in the summer of 2018!

I continue to struggle with my physical and mental health, but I am now receiving support from the right people, which makes a world of difference. Since completing my degree, I am now focusing on my blog and YouTube channel and hope, one day, to be able to do these and other projects on a freelance basis. I have also done some work with brands like Disney, helping them to make events accessible to Disabled people, which is something I've really enjoyed doing and would love to do more of.

I started Ramblings of a Jaffa Cat in October 2013, and changed the name to 'Jenny Cole' in 2023. I have kept a diary since I was about 7 years old and have always enjoyed writing. I had been reading blogs for about a year and suddenly thought, why am I not doing this?! This little corner of the internet gives me somewhere to express my thoughts and opinions on all sorts of issues - from fashion and beauty, to mental and physical health problems, and, of course, my love for Disney! I'm also a keen photographer, so now have a great place to share some of my work and hopefully improve my skills. I also decided to take up YouTube in 2014 and love creating content for my channel. As well as this, I like to share content on social media, especially Instagram and TikTok. 

I hope you will enjoy following my blog as much as I enjoy writing it!