CELEBRATING STEM STORIES
Francesca Littler
Job Title: Technician Commitment Manager at the Wellcome Sanger Institute.
Disability: Multiple long-term health conditions, including a connective tissue disorder.
Francesca’s interest in STEM started at school, and she went on to study Biology and Genomic Medicine at university. Even though she knew that she didn’t want to work in a lab, she still wanted to be involved in science.
Joining the management training scheme at the Wellcome Sanger Institute after university helped her explore other options, and now she manages a programme that recognises and supports technical staff for the important work that they do.
As chair of the disability network for the Wellcome Genome Campus, Francesca also works hard to make sure that it’s a more inclusive and accessible place for everyone to work.
Understanding that everyone is facing some sort of challenge in their life helps Francesca to support other people in her job. Living with different long-term health conditions, including a connective tissue disorder which took years to diagnose, brings challenges that vary from day to day - or even hour to hour.
Francesca hopes that her story will help other people understand that there are very few roles that aren’t accessible to someone with a disability; it's just about finding the ways to do things that work for you, and finding the right support.
Her advice to anyone living with chronic conditions is to push through self-doubt and fight for the things that you're passionate about: “You just have to find that way through, and find your own path to it”