About This Website
ChronicallyHopeful.com is a lifestyle blog documenting my journey through life as a chronically ill person with big dreams and no energy. You'll find posts on all sorts of things from journaling and art to adapting daily activities and raising awareness of chronic illness. I'll be sharing the joys and struggles of a life with limits as well as recommending strategies and products that have benefitted me along the way.
About The Author
My name is Charlene. I was born and raised in South Africa, lived in Italy for ten years and now call England home. I'm passionate about health, food, fitness, faith and art. I also enjoy reading, gardening, gaming and learning new things.
I am a teacher, but have been housebound with Myalgic Encephalomyelitis since 2015. You can read all about my ME story here.
Share Your Story
I believe that sharing our personal experience of chronic illness is the best way to raise awareness of our conditions and eliminate the associated stigma. If you're a chronically ill person and would like to be featured on my blog, visit this page to find out how. I would love to share your story!
Work With Me
I'm happy to work with brands that are relevant to my audience and their needs, that way both the brand and my audience get value from the collaboration. I only collaborate with brands I would use and like or if I think your products or services would be beneficial to my readers. I do not want to waste their time or yours. If you think Chronically Hopeful will be a good fit for your brand, please download my media kit and get in touch.
Disclaimer
The information shared on this website is based on the personal experience of each author and should not be treated as medical advice. It is advisable to speak to your health care provider before starting any new treatments.
Affiliate Links
I am a member of the Amazon Associates Programme as well as some other affiliate programmes by companies I trust and use regularly, like Koldtec, Canva, Tailwind and Bulk.
HOW IT WORKS
When you click on one of my affiliate links and proceed to purchase something from the website you end up on, I will get a small commission - at no cost to you, for the customer referral. The rewards are usually quite small, but they add up over time and will eventually translate to a voucher I can use on a future order. This can potentially help take some of the burden off my parents who are supporting my sister and I financially since I fell ill - so I thank you for your support!
NOTE: Although I only link to products I love or believe would be beneficial to my readers, I cannot be held responsible for any purchases you make. I recommend reading reviews online and coming to your own conclusions before spending money.
Pages containing affiliate links will be clearly marked with an affiliate disclaimer.
Website Branding
ChronicallyHopeful.com has gone through quite an evolution since its creation. These changes were based on the topics covered and the feel I was going for in each season of its existence.
I have always created my own logos too, which have also changed over the years. You'll find them on my website, on graphics I've made and on my social media accounts. Although they have changed over time, some things have remained constant: All Chronically Hopeful logos have "CHRONICALLY" written in all caps and "hopeful" written in a brush lettering style below it. The older logo has a circle around the text and a small butterfly on the upper right, a symbol of hope as I went through the roughest part of my illness. The new logo only has the two words. Both logos are valid, they just represent different parts of my journey.
You might notice the colours on the website have changed too. ChronicallyHopeful.com used to be advocacy focused, so the colours I chose reflected that. I used a dark blue as that is the colour of the Myalgic Encephalomyelitis awareness ribbon. It just made sense at the time to have my website match the content I was creating most frequently.
As the focus of this website has changed, as of the end of 2022, I decided to update the look and feel of it too. Although the number of topics I'll be covering has increased, I'm now using softer colours and a cleaner, less visually cluttered interface.
I hope these improvements will make navigating the site easier and more enjoyable. Please get in touch if you have any questions or suggestions.
Website Theme & Page Layouts
This blog is running on WordPress using Thrive Themes. They have fantastic tools for building your own themes, pages, posts, sign up forms and more. Allowing you to personalise just about every aspect of your website without needing to know any code. They have a brilliant Theme Builder, which has drag and drop functionalities and loads of premade templates to use or modify. I highly recommend Thrive Themes if you'd like to build a website too. Check them out here.
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