February 8, 2020
This time last weekend, we were hearing all about the incredible success of our InvisiYouth event in London, hosted by our founder Dominique! And it wasn’t like any other event we’ve hosted before…because this was being filmed to be part of The Dark Horse film, directed by Ashleigh Harley. This film encompasses such an important focal point of InvisiYouth’s mission: to showcase how young adults can thrive in life with chronic illness or disability, and never ‘wait for a cure’ to live to its fullest.
The Dark Horse has a wonderful premise. On Ashleigh Harley’s website, you can see the pre-trailer for the film, she describes the film.
“When a young girl is diagnosed with an incurable illness nobody can see, she fights against the perceptions of disability to get her sport recognized at the World Paralympic Games. Often struggling to walk, surviving on a liquid diet and crippled by excruciating pain, she finds freedom on the back of a very special horse.”
We know how much founder Dominique loves England, so having her go to London to host our event at the gorgeous private event space by fellow nonprofit CentrePoint, was a no brainer. They are a UK nonprofit that aids young adults dealing with homelessness, so the opportunity to use their event space for our event meant so much to InvisiYouth’s team.
Old and new faces, friends, Global Brand Leaders, supporters and even Dominique’s sister, all made appearances for this event.
While Dominique gave a motivating speech to the group and shared how her own chronic illness journey led to creating InvisiYouth almost five years ago, she was also joined by our two stellar guest speakers. We had a friend to InvisiYouth, Polly Maton, Paralympic long jumper and sprinter for Team Great Britain in the 2016 Rio Paralympics (and hopefully in #Tokyo2020 this summer too) who spoke to everyone about the power of disability sport in her life.
And we were fortunate to have a personal trainer, Ultra Endurance Athlete and cystic fibrosis warrior, Sophie Grace Holmes, motivating our group about striving for your goals in the face of any adversity…and sharing how she’ll be completing her first Iron Man Triathlon this summer!
When Dominique gave her speech, she reminded the group of an InvisiYouth mantra: “You are always invincible, never invisible. So adapt, dream big, find your supporters and believe in yourself.” We cannot wait for all of you to get to see this film when it’s released later this year!
Director Ashleigh Harley explained so well in her Instagram post about how filming InvisiYouth’s event will have such an impact in her film: “What a beautiful and eye-opening day we all had working with the incredible InvisiYouth Charity event hosted by Dominique Viel as part of The Dark Horse Film. The day truly showed that no matter your adversity in life or the type of pain you suffer there is always something incredible you can achieve. A big thank you to Dominique who traveled all the way from the US to contribute her amazing work into the film.”
As more details about The Dark Horse, and features showing InvisiYouth Charity come forward, we will be sharing those details on our social media platforms. So check with InvisiYouth on Instagram to keep up to date and learn more!