About vlad
Vlad was born in Soviet Moscow in 1981.
He grew up in an apartment with four generations of his family – including a great grandmother who had lost all her possessions during the Russian Revolution. Economic turmoil meant that through his childhood there was rationing of basic provisions & supermarkets with no food.
A memorable highlight was – aged 9 – joining tens of thousands of Moscow residents queuing to visit McDonald’s when it opened in 1991 & having his first milkshake.
With the economic situation worsening, the family escaped to Israel, where Vlad had his first taste of the West. A few years later, they immigrated to the UK, and Vlad became a British citizen, making his home in London. Vlad has also lived in Australia and Tonga.
In 2003, during post graduate studies at Oxford University, Vlad contracted Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (M.E.), a debilitating health condition of the brain & nervous system.
He was unable to walk, talk or read for two years.
Today, he is largely housebound with limited daily function. Managing his symptoms is a constant process.
Living with this condition, which clinicians consider as debilitating as HIV or MS, gives Vlad a unique perspective on disability & the tragic element in life, as well as the beauty.