The Creative Engine: Turning Pain into Power

Some people meditate. Some people journal. I design and I train. For me, design and endurance mean the same thing. They do the same thing. They quiet the noise, give me focus.

I’ve always had a mind that races. Ideas constantly flicker. I can’t sit still, and I rarely want to. But when I’m swimming through cold water, or deep in a design project — that’s when everything stops. The chaos quiets. I’m locked in. That’s my sanctuary.

This is what The Creative Engine is all about.

From Breathless to Boundless

I was born with cystic fibrosis (CF) — a genetic condition that affects the lungs and digestive system. It causes thick, sticky mucus to build up in the airways, making it hard to breathe and easy for infections to take hold. It’s lifelong, relentless, and for a long time it defined everything I did.

CF isn’t something you “manage” once a day. It’s hours. Every day. As a kid, I’d spend long stretches hooked up to nebulisers and doing physio sessions where I’d sit, breathe, cough, repeat — trying to keep my lungs clear. 90 minutes before school in the morning and 90 minutes in the evening before bed.

That's a lot of time, especially when you're young. As an adult, you can kind of endure long tedious stretches of boredom. But as a kid, that felt like a lifetime.

I’d draw to distract myself. At first, just doodles — shapes, superheroes. Then I started to notice the logos. The typefaces. The colours. I began wondering why some designs made me feel something and others didn’t.

As the years went on, my “therapy” slowly evolved. Pencil and paper turned into an iPad. The iPad became a laptop. And before I realised it, I wasn’t just filling the hours between treatments — I was building skills, learning software, and losing myself in design. Don't get me wrong, it still sucked... and I still whinged.

But at least I had something to distract me, and was building a skillset without even knowing it. Looking back, that’s where Sandance Creative really began.

Design and Endurance — The Same Obsession

It sounds strange to say, but I’m obsessed with both design and endurance for the exact same reason: they give me peace through pressure.

When I’m training, I’m fully present. Every movement, every breath matters. When I’m designing, it’s the same. Lines, colours, balance — it all demands focus.

There’s a meditative repetition in both. A long swim and a complex brand identity both require rhythm, patience, and trust in the process. I’ve realised that what I’m truly addicted to isn’t either of them individually — it’s that state of flow they create. That moment where it’s just you, your body or your mind, and the work ahead.

Pain into Power

In the summer this year, I set out to do something no one with Cystic Fibrosis had ever done before — swim across all 13 lakes in the Lake District.

Each one open water and each one so different from the last. 71km total, over 4 months. It was called The13 Challenge, and it became one of the hardest — and most meaningful — things I’ve ever done.

For most of my life, doctors told me that age thirty would likely be my limit. Thirty years, if I was lucky. So when I turned thirty, I didn’t want to just celebrate surviving — I wanted to prove what thriving could look like.

I wanted to show people with CF, and anyone who’s ever felt trapped by circumstance, that your limits aren’t set in stone. They’re set in your head.

I wasn’t doing it for records or recognition. I was doing it for hope — to prove that breath, movement and ambition still belong to us. Why swimming? There was a strong link between the act of swimming, breathing out underwater before taking your breath in, and the act of me doing my physio mask I mentioned earlier. It felt like the exact same thing. The same pressure. The same lung clearance. It clicked one session as to how similar they were - so when I decided to do a challenge, it needed to be swim related.

But The13 Challenge wasn’t just about endurance — it was about storytelling. It was about making people feel something.

That’s where design came in.

I built the entire campaign from scratch — the brand, the logo, the posters, the apparel, the social graphics. Everything was created through Sandance Creative, but fuelled by a higher purpose.

It was design used for something bigger than business. It was communication that carried emotion.

Those designs helped The13 Challenge reach national media — from BBC Breakfast to local radio, newspapers and online features. But more importantly, they reached people who needed to see that life with CF doesn’t have to stop at thirty.

The campaign raised awareness, funds and — most importantly — belief. Messages came in from families and other people with CF saying they’d started training, swimming, or even just dreaming again.

That’s when it really hit me: this is what happens when design meets endurance.

When creativity and movement share a purpose - a purpose that was built from the same, boring 90 minutes of physio.

The Creative Engine — what’s next?

This blog is where I’ll bring those worlds together. You’ll find stories about design, endurance, mindset, and life with cystic fibrosis — sometimes all in the same breath.

I’ll share what I’m learning about running a creative studio, staying consistent when motivation fades, and building something meaningful when the odds feel stacked.

Because whether it’s pixels or pavement, I’ve realised one thing:

progress is made one breath, one stroke, one idea at a time.