It was encouraging to see the blue badge scheme for disabled parkers being extended last week. For the first time, people with hidden disabilities such as dementia and anxiety disorders, can qualify for the parking permit scheme, the government has confirmed. This positive news was tempered by a separate report which suggests councils are not prepared for the increase in blue badge holders.

Acquired brain injury (ABI) is the most common cause of injury in childhood and affects 18 in every 100,000 children in England (NHS England, 2013). This includes both traumatic brain injury (e.g. road traffic accident) and non-traumatic brain injury (e.g. tumour, stroke, infection). As the brain continues to develop until the late 20s, the impact of an ABI is considered to be a developing condition, rather than confined to the single physical injury.

“I had one dreadful experience when I came back into Heathrow Terminal 4 and my wheelchair was not brought up to the door,” recalls Anne Luttman-Johnson. “I refused to get off the plane until I knew that my wheelchair had arrived, and was in one piece. “They brought me a wheelchair that I couldn't push myself in. It had little wheels and I had to be pushed through the airport. It was the most undignified, humiliating experience. I hated it.” Anne has used a wheelchair for more than 30 years, having broken her back at age 21.

NRT: What does your job involve? CP: Our team deals exclusively with claims on behalf of people who are injured somewhere other than in their home country. We predominantly represent English people who are injured on holiday or working abroad, but sometimes we represent claimants from other countries injured here in England and Wales. We deal with cross-border litigation, where we often have to consider whether a different country’s laws might apply or govern the claim. Sometimes there’s a choice as to where you bring the claim, and there are often arguments about which law will determine how much compensation a claimant can expect to receive.

A recent report published by Neurological Alliance member charity Sue Ryder revealed that more than 15,000 people in England with complex neurological conditions such as head injury, motor neurone disease, MS, Parkinson’s disease and Huntington’s disease, are living in old people’s nursing homes.This is shocking news and yet another case of the UK’s ‘postcode lottery’ in which access to health services and medical treatments is determined by the area of the country in which individuals live. Is it not ethically wrong to hide an articulate young person with motor neurone disease trapped in a dying body or a middle-aged man with a brain injury acquired in a road traffic accident in a setting inappropriate to their age and without a care plan or rehabilitation prescription?

In a packed auditorium not far from the Yangtze River, hundreds of delegates are on their feet clapping vigorously. They have just discovered that one of their national heroes has been sitting among them undetected all evening. Xia Boya is China’s rehabilitation poster boy (or man, since he’s now 70). In his twenties during an attempt to scale Everest, his team hit bad weather just 250 metres from the summit. Xia gave his sleeping bag to a teammate who was struggling to survive. But his kindness came with a heavy cost – frostbite and the subsequent amputation of both his legs. Yet 43 years after that failed mission, he finally achieved his dream of climbing the world’s most unforgiving peak.

Jessie’s Fund teamed up with Chroma to deliver music therapy to paediatric patients in York Hospital, as music therapist Steven Lyons reports.

Dr Gemma Costello introduces SPECS, a psychosocial training package for professionals working with children and young people with acquired brain injury.

By David Withers, partner in the serious injury team in Irwin Mitchell’s Sheffield Office.