Patients & families

Six Flags Magic Mountain has permanently closed X2 amid lawsuits alleging riders suffered severe brain injuries on the California rollercoaster. The theme park said it had decided to retire the ride after nearly 20 years. X2 had been closed since July 12 after two riders suffered life-threatening brain injuries less than a week apart. [...]

Is meaningful improvement still possible 10 years after an incomplete cervical spinal cord injury? Steven Dowd set out to find the answer…. Ten years after breaking my neck in a cycling accident, I set out to explore one simple question: is meaningful improvement still possible a decade after an incomplete cervical spinal cord injury? In [...]

A tetraplegic veteran has completed a 79-mile challenge across the Highlands, raising more than £25,000 for spinal injury charity Regain. Danny Mavor, who served in the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards in Iraq, was paralysed following a motorcycle accident six years ago.   The 41-year-old from Glasgow completed the three-day journey from Fort William [...]

A Sheffield spinal nurse says he is lucky to walk again following a spinal cord injury when he fell in his garden. “I cared for spinal cord injury patients for 22 years, you think you can empathise a little, but you can’t in any shape or form” When Tony Fallon (57) from Sheffield was paralysed [...]

Around 1,500 Britons a day are quitting their jobs to provide unpaid care, a report has found. More than one million people are estimated to have left work to care for ageing, ill or disabled loved ones over the past two years. One in five employees, equivalent to 6.7 million people, are balancing paid employment [...]

Chris Kamara is set to take part in the Great North Run more than four years after being diagnosed with speech apraxia. The former footballer and Sky Sports pundit revealed his diagnosis in 2022 and stepped away from his broadcasting career that year. Speech apraxia is a neurological disorder that affects the brain's ability to [...]

A Leeds garden has launched an outdoor photography trail featuring work by a local brain injury survivor. York Gate Garden in Adel hosted nearly 100 guests for an exclusive preview of the exhibition, which features Samuel Booth's photography throughout the one-acre site. Booth, a local photographer and gardener, has volunteered at York Gate and Harewood [...]

Former rugby player David ‘Jacko’ Jackson is nearing the end of a 100-day ultramarathon challenge raising funds for brain injury charities. Jackson is aiming to complete a 50km ultramarathon every day for 100 consecutive days, with the challenge due to finish on September 5. He hopes to raise £100,000 for Headway UK and Head for [...]

When Tilly had a sudden stroke, ordinary young-adult life suddenly felt out of reach. Her story shows how specialist, technology-enabled community neurorehabilitation can turn clinical progress into something more personal: work, friendships, freedom and a way back to herself. By Resilience Neuro Specialists, Warwickshire “Having a stroke at 19 isn’t the most interesting thing about [...]

On 11 January, I woke up with a headache and an overwhelming feeling that something wasn't right. As a GP registrar, I tried to reassure myself it wasn't a stroke. But within minutes, I lost all power down my left side. I called my wife, who immediately phoned for an ambulance. Shortly afterwards, I lost [...]