A first time catwalk model from Ashton says "love the skin you're in" ahead of a disability pride fashion show in Manchester.
Former teacher Rebecca Lad, 34, is one of 16 models - female, non binary and male - who will take part in the most inclusive fashion show the city has ever staged.
Rebecca signed up to take part after seeing a casting call on Instagram, saying this year was all about "pushing myself out of my comfort zone."
The former head of music said walking the runway was an important step towards embracing the changes that have happened to her body and mind, since she has been living with long Covid.
She said: "I first fell ill in 2021 when I was in my late 20s and was really sick for months. I recovered to around 80% but then fell ill again in September 2024 and had a five month relapse. I still live with fatigue and brain fog.
"Before I contracted Covid, I used to exercise a lot, enjoying regular pole fitness and aerial hoop classes. I can't do that anymore and have gained a lot of weight."
Rebecca says it is now difficult to find fashion that is "flattering, accommodating and stylish", saying that mainstream fashion is "really focussed on skinny girls, not curvy women with a bigger tummy and chest".
"Even the 'plus size' models are a size 14 and have impossibly flat stomachs," she said. "It makes women like myself feel wrong, but this is the body I’m in, it’s the only one I’ve got and I’m sick of shaming it when its strength is the reason I was able to recover as much as I have."
Having quit a ten year teaching career last year, Rebecca is now studying with the British Academy of Fashion Design and plans to launch her own business later this year selling handbags and other accessories. Eventually, she hopes to move into designing Indian/Western fusion bridal and occasion wear.
Aged from 20s-50s, every model who will travel the runway in the disability Pride Catwalk show at Aviva Studios is disabled or chronically ill. All will wear adaptive fashion designs from a young, ambitious Manchester label called RECONDITION.
Each garment in RECONDITION's denim-centred collection, has been designed with and for disabled people. Research from disability charity Leonard Cheshire found that mainstream fashion in the UK does not meet the needs of three quarters of disabled people.
Adaptations built into RECONDITION's inclusive designs include front pockets on jeans for wheelchair users, ring pull zips for people with reduced dexterity and sleeves with poppers along their full length to help accommodate prosthetic limbs or medical equipment from feeding tubes to insulin pumps.
RECONDITION was launched in 2025 by Manchester Metropolitan University fashion graduate Ellie Brown. Ellie's eyes were opened to how unaccommodating fashion can be in 2021, when she badly broke her ankle, which resulted in her using a wheelchair for several months.
Ellie said: "The Disability Pride Catwalk is a safe space for people to celebrate bodies of all kinds whilst enjoying the atmosphere and experience of a runway show.
"I also hope the event will provoke useful discussions about how fashion - and society as a whole - can take more accountability for inclusivity."
According to government figures, a quarter of people in the UK have a disability - that's 16.8m people. And in state pension aged people, the figure rises to almost half (45%).
The Disability Pride Catwalk takes place at Aviva Studios on Saturday 27 June 2026 ahead of Disability Awareness Month. Tickets are free.
Disability Pride Catwalk: A Space for Each Other
Saturday 27 June 2026 6-8pm
The Undercroft, Aviva Studios, Water Street, Manchester, M3 4JQ
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