About Me

(To see my professional bio, click this dropdown, otherwise ignore!)

Saffron Baldoza is a young and determined artist, writer, and advocate for autistic individuals, in particular those dealing with mental health issues, eating difficulties, and who have experienced sexual abuse. Having spent the majority of her childhood and early adulthood in inpatient units, she is passionate about making lasting change and creating a world that genuinely provides opportunities for all. Saffron is also very interested in research, believing this to be fundamental in order to understand how true equality and real inclusion can be achieved.

Since graduating, Saffron has actively pursued positions in which her lived experience can be shared to help others and to teach or inform. She is part of Ambitious About Autism and the National Autistic Society, where she has co-produced and delivered numerous webinars, among other work, and also regularly contributes on lived experience panels for Socialworkvoices and Think Ahead’s SUCRG programme. Having spent the last year with the British Youth Council working on a report of recommendations for improving the financial education provision for marginalised communities, she is moving to a new position within BYC’s Future Voices Group, to focus on youth unemployment.

Recently, Saffron co-authored a paper on the impacts of abuse on mental health, and started her own blog, where she shares infographics about life on the spectrum, and gives insight into dealing with chronic mental health conditions. She hopes to use her blog to further empower the voices of people often overlooked.

I’m a budding artist and writer with a passion for improving the lives of autistic individuals, particularly mental health and ARFID (avoidant restrictive food intake disorder). As someone with lived experience, I am passionate about using my own knowledge and understanding to change the way society views and supports those who are neurodiverse, and believe I have valuable insight into my conditions. I feel strongly that a future in which autistic individuals are able to fully achieve their potential and share the unique qualities and skills they have to offer, is possible, if we can change the world’s approach to disabilities. I am dedicated to ensuring the term ‘equal opportunity’ really does apply to the neurodiverse community.

My work thus far includes speaking at the National Autistic Conference Autscape in 2021 and 2022, co-delivering numerous webinars as part of my role on Ambitious About Autism’s Youth Council, and co-authoring a research paper about the impact of violent experiences during adolescence on mental health upon adulthood. I am also very proud to say that in my third year of university, I founded and was president of NOVIS – Cardiff University’s Neurodiversity Opportunity, Visibility, and Inclusion Society (in recognition of this I was runner up for the Enriching Student Life Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Award).

Prior to pursuing advocacy I studied accounting, and am currently working towards chartered accountancy. I have a strong aptitude for numbers and maths, which is also evident in my freelance work as a private GCSE and A Level maths tutor. I am also proficient with Microsoft Office and am a certified Excel specialist. I believe my time at university is a reflection on my determination and responsible, self-motivated attitude, as well as my thorough and conscientious nature.

In addition, there is a very creative side to my personality. I studied both Art and History of Art at A level, and in my freetime continue to enjoy these interests. I have recently begun exploring digital art and painting, and writing poetry. My spoken word poems have led to achieving the Highly Commended award in the SLAMbassadors competition 2016. I hope to use more of my creative skills to help explain my conditions and express some of the emotions relating to these.

If you would like to learn more about what I do in my freetime, please consider visiting my personal blog, here.
If you would like to read a more detailed history of my experiences with mental health and as an autistic individual, please read below.

My Mental Health History

I was first diagnosed with anorexia at the age of 9 and was treated as an outpatient, though I didn’t receive any therapy, and got better very quickly. I was discharged from services completely aged 10 – because I ‘did as I was told’. I personally feel this was because I wasn’t actually suffering with anorexia but had been struggling with sensory issues and being indecisive, so being put on a meal plan made things a lot simpler for me. I had so many rules in my head, which protected me from the confusing world I lived in.

As I got older, I began to find life very difficult, due to the pressures of school, adolescence, and life in general, and returned to services, at which point, aged 13, I was diagnosed formally with depression, and a year later, autism. Unfortunately, the diagnosis was, for the most part, ignored by my team.
Around this time I started to restrict my eating again, and from what I can remember, this was quite purposeful. Eventually my weight became too low to be treated in the community, and I was admitted to an eating disorder unit.

Between the ages of 14 and 21 I had eight inpatient admissions, including multiple of over 6 months, with periods inbetween of outpatient treatment (all under the mental health act), as well as countless hospitalisations. I was diagnosed with OCD and my problems became much more complex. I am definite that one key factor in my mental state never improving is that, in every hospital, my autism was ignored, and treatment was not adapted.
Furthermore, the lack of understanding of the root cause of my problems (not body image, but difficulties with anxiety, rigidity, and sensory problems) is what I believe led me to ending up a ‘revolving door’ patient (constantly being readmitted). Even though I found some elements of inpatient admissions distressing, I also found some comforting and rewarding.
I also recieved support from social services, as a Child in Need.

When I began to approach adulthood, during another admission, I met a fellow autistic patient. She helped me to accept and understand my diagnosis more, and subsequently I discovered more about how my Autism presents itself. I began to realise who I was without a unit and the label ‘anorexic’. I then found out about ‘ARFID’, which I now identify with, rather than anorexia. I developed my own strategies to cope, including using ‘life pies’ to help me figure out my identity.

I then left home to study at university (throughout my admissions, I had studied independently, and through a lot of hard work, continued to achieve academically). I managed to gain a place at university, where I experienced sexual abuse. This is something I am still coming to terms with and processing. It did however lead to my final admission to an eating disorder unit. I self studied my first year of university from hospital.

When I returned to university in my second year, I was determined to stay well and to not let everything that has happened to me dictate my future. I joined Ambitious About Autism, and volunteered as a student mentor, and in my final year of university, founded NOVIS (a society for neurodiverse students), was lead business school mentor, and became extremely passionate about becoming an advocate for autistic individuals. My journey has been very tough, and I do not want to see it echoed in the lives of others. I have also come across so many amazing people with disabilities, whose talents have been ignored and overlooked – the injustice of this is, to me, unbearable.

At present I am recieving support for my mental health from an outpatient team, and feel confident I will be able to fully recover.