Patient stories
An organisation established in response to the lack of community-based brain injury support is now helping to change the reality for survivors across East Yorkshire and Lincolnshire.
A survivor who lost both her job and home after her stroke is rebuilding her life after finding salvation in surfing.
Having had a stroke and lost his job within a week, Adrian Day is now committed to showing others there is hope even during the bleakest of times.
A woman who had to learn to walk again after a brain tumour has completed the virtual London Marathon.
A former opera singer who was paralysed from the neck down has been able to perform again following an extensive rehabilitation programme comprising “therapy, perseverance and hope”.
“This is a different life and we need help to live it”
Former military police officer and Blesma member Lesley Stewart spent many years in agonising pain, and eventually lost her leg, due to undiagnosed dystonia. Read her incredible story of coming back from years of struggle to compete in the Paralympics
A man who overcame a near-fatal brain haemorrhage and defied the odds to claim numerous world records is now set to run a gruelling eight marathons in eight days to enable vital support for brain injury survivors and their families to continue. Dad-of-two Neil Rhodes, 63, has completed more than 17 ultramarathons since he nearly died of a brain haemorrhage in 2003. The super fit personal trainer was aged 45 and practising on a rowing machine just three days before the World Indoor Rowing Championships when he collapsed and was rushed to hospital. There, doctors discovered a berry aneurysm in his middle cerebral artery had burst due to a ‘ticking time bomb’ weakness which had been there since he was born. Neil underwent an eight-and-a-half-hour operation to save his life, but doctors gave him just a seven per cent chance of survival.
Following the life-threatening experiences of contracting COVID-19, having a stroke and then living with Long COVID, James is being supported in rebuilding his life by the QEF Care and Rehabilitation Centre. Here, he shares his story
“On Christmas Eve I felt bad, I passed out and they called an ambulance out. They took me into East Surrey hospital, checked my sats, gave me oxygen and when my sats improved I went back home. But the next day it happened again, I passed out and they took me to A&E, then a respiratory ward. I didn’t make any improvement, so a bed was prepared for me on ICU, where they put me on a ventilator that saved my life. I remained in ICU at East Surrey Hospital for a further two weeks until I was stable enough to be moved. During this time, it was uncertain if I would survive. I was airlifted to the Lane Fox Unit at St Thomas’ Hospital In London, in the same ward where Boris Johnson the Prime Minister was treated. I stayed on a ventilator there for four weeks.
