Next week we kick off Microsoft’s annual Build conference here in Seattle. Two years ago, Satya Nadella closed his speech with an inspiring story about a graphic designer from London – Emma Lawton and an equally amazing Microsoft researcher and inventor Haiyan Zhang.

6 years ago, Emma was diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease. Some of you may have seen the story but if not, below you'll find the original story produced as part of the BBC’s Big Life Fix.

Today Emma continues to raise awareness of Parkinson’s and has embarked on a new project over the last 12 months called “The F---it List” where she’ll do something new each day, do it with someone else, and document it.

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Rewind to Wednesday May 10th 2017. We had planned to have Emma publish an op-ed in the Seattle Times with the story going live that morning as a precursor to Satya Nadella's keynote at Build.

We were excited about the story. In many ways we saw the story as a call to arms, in an era where the technology industry often finds itself at the center of controversy. Any driver of innovation and progress often does.

On the Tuesday afternoon we got a call to tell us that the Times had passed on publishing it citing other news priorities.

Disappointing for sure, but not totally surprising given the day before the Deputy Attorney General , Attorney General , POTUS had fired the Director of the FBI.

We’ve kept in touch with Emma and earlier this week I asked her if she’d be okay with us sharing the unpublished op-ed on LinkedIn. She agreed.

So, here’s the never published op-ed from Emma Lawton – it may be two years old, but it’s still profound, relevant and inspiring.

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Rooting for innovation, and technology by Emma Lawton May 10, 2017

There is a lot of talk about tech today and what it means for humans. And humanity. A lot of thoughtful conversation. There’s also a lot of fear mongering. Do we keep pushing forward at our own peril? Will technology at its best ultimately be used for good, or evil?

It’s easy to get lost in the headlines, the daily debates. Everyone has an opinion. Will software eat the world? Or, will it save the world?

A diagnosis of Parkinson’s comes as a shock to anyone. But at 29, it was definitely the last thing I was expecting. I knew something wasn’t quite right for about a year before but had been ignoring the numbness and weakness developing in my right arm. When I finally got my diagnosis, it almost came as I relief because I knew what I was dealing with.

As a creative director, my superpower is telling stories and I decided there and then that the story of my life wouldn’t hang around my Parkinson’s, it would be a minor character.

I’m not a digital native. I was born into the generation that grew up without a computer in the house, I still feel most comfortable starting a project with pen and paper. My tremor, which developed around 6 months after my diagnosis, meant I was struggling to write and draw even in the early stages of my condition. This was a blow that left me feeling like I’d have to change career. I hadn’t drawn a straight line, written notes or felt confident sketching for clients in a very long time. I couldn’t even write my name. A simple task that people take for granted became my unicorn.

Last year I met Haiyan Zhang, innovation director at Microsoft Research in the UK, as part of the BBC’s Big Life Fix which brings together inventors to create ingenious new solutions to everyday problems and build life-changing solutions.

Her drive and curiosity changed both my future and my views on technology with one simple but brilliant idea. She and her team created a watch-like device which used small motors to vibrate into my wrist and tricked my brain into ‘forgetting’ about the tremor. The first time I wore it, I wrote my name and drew a straight line.

It’s difficult to put into words what that moment felt like, but it was life altering. Perspective changing.

Technology will continue to play a greater part in my life and this is a positive thing. Because I realize the combination of human ingenuity and tech to solve problems is unbeatable. Innovation is ultimately about people. The people behind it. And the people it benefits.

Technology doesn’t offer a cure, but it offers me hope. I’m inspired by the innovation here, in Seattle, a city of creators, a place that feels like it’s collectively dreaming up new ways to use the power of technology to create the future.

So, if there’s one message I want to deliver to the 5000+ developers that will descend on Seattle this week and to everyone that works at Microsoft – it’s this.

Keep going! Keep innovating, keep creating, keep making the impossible possible for people like me. Technology is your superpower, and it’s in your hands to use it for good—to change the world.

Be thoughtful. But don’t be afraid.

written by: Emma Lawton & Aimee Riordan

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