Prill Boyle's Defying Gravity
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Profiles - Your Stories
 Donna Hill - Folk Singer/Songwriter/Recording Artist’s Struggle with Blindness, Cancer & More
http://cdbaby.com/cd/donnahill
Brief Description of Yourself:
I’m a fighter who enjoys being outdoors in the country, baking blueberry swirl buns, knitting, writing everything from music to haiku & fantasy, and working for public acceptance of blind Americans.
1) What do you believe makes you special or interesting?
My tenacity, my achievements in spite of obstacles, my sense of humor and my cute dog.
2) What kind of effect have you had, or would like to have on the world?
I have worked for thirty years to encourage people of all ages to reach out for their dreams and understand how to maneuver around the pitfalls. I would like to help Americans become more comfortable with blind people & increase awareness of the talents of and issues facing them.
3) What events shaped or changed your life?
Being born with the degenerative eye disease Retinitis Pigmentosa, almost being raped at age 24, finding my own breast cancer twice (ages 40 & 41), getting a guide dog, meeting my husband, learning to read Braille and use a computer and studying the Alexander method of movement re education.
4) Did you overcome obstacles - take risks - get lucky?
I was a blind child in a public school in the fifties when that wasn’t done & endured vicious bullying throughout my school days. I graduated from college when people told me I shouldn’t even try. I developed my career as a musician, self producing my early recordings & doing my own booking, because local agents didn’t want to take a chance on a blind woman. After my second diagnosis of breast cancer, which coincided with the completion of my third recording, put an end to my plans to move to Nashville to market my songwriting skills, I re invented myself and came back stronger than ever.
5) What have you done that no one would guess you'd done upon first meeting you?
Since many people have low expectations of blind people, I’d have to say that almost anything I have done surprises them.
6) What is still left to be done in your life?
I want to finish my children’s novel, learn more about digital recording so I can do my recordings at home, be a positive role model for my nieces and nephew and other young people in my life, accompany my husband on his dream vacations to experience our national parks and Alaska and help the public become more comfortable with the wonderful and talented young blind people who are struggling under the burden of a seventy percent “un”employment rate, diminishing rehab opportunities and so on.
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