Patients & families

Families are being enabled to regain their voice in the care and rehabilitation of their loved ones through the creation of a new forum at a specialist Cambridgeshire community.

An ‘Ask the Therapist’ forum has been introduced by Askham Rehab, part of Askham Village Community, to help bridge the gap created by lockdown between relatives and therapists. Through monthly video calls, families of Askham residents with complex brain injuries can receive support and advice from the community’s multidisciplinary team, alongside updates on their loved one’s treatment and pathway.

Aware that many people with Parkinson’s wanted to be more challenged with their physical activity, Neuro Heroes was created to do just that. Here, co-founder Laura Douglas tells NR Times about why their service is badly needed and warmly welcomed.

While the benefits of exercise for people with Parkinson’s are well known, that exercise usually comes in the form of yoga or tai chi, something which is certainly active but at the more relaxing end of the scale. But for Neuro Heroes, their definition of exercise for people with Parkinson’s is different. “We have a group of people who want to be challenged and pushed, as well as building their fitness,” says Laura Douglas, co-founder of the group.

The neuro ward at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary has a new lease of life thanks to the wife of one former patient, who was inspired to act by how underfunded it was. Now, Caroline Critchlow is turning her fundraising attention to another neuro centre, with plans to create a therapy garden

Although it was back in 2013 that her husband underwent major brain surgery, Caroline Critchlow remembers it like it was yesterday. Not just for the understandable trauma, anxiety and distress caused by your husband undergoing a 22-hour operation, the longest ever performed at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary - but equally for the state of the hospital neuro ward, which will forever be ingrained in her memory. “It was in a terrible state. The day room was in dreadful condition, which is the place relatives like me waited, and where patients took a break away from their beds. When you went to the loo, the toilet seat was cracked; the lino was held together with tape; the coffee table was broken; the wallpaper was peeling off,” recalls Caroline.

A woman left with a traumatic brain injury after a hit-and-run is now using her experiences to support and inspire others.

Emily Bradfield was left seriously injured after a car careered into her as she was walking to a London station one July evening in 2018. While thankfully she won her fight for survival, Emily faced a long road to recovery having suffered a brain injury, broken right arm, and heme-paresis on her whole left side. There also were fears about whether she would walk again.

After years spent in pain and struggling for a diagnosis, Karl Johnston felt relief when he was confirmed as having a little-known condition where the brain effectively slips into the spine. Here, he shares his story.

"Some dads get to put their children on their shoulders, but I've never got to do that.” That is just one of the day-to-day realities facing Karl Johnston, whose condition, Chiari Malformation Type 1, means his brain is effectively slipping into his spine. For eight years, Karl had experienced a catalogue of symptoms, including intense and debilitating neck pain, light-headedness, fatigue and numbness in his arms, but without securing a diagnosis of his condition. But now, the 35-year-old admits he feels some relief at the knowledge he has Chiari Malformation Type 1, as devastating as the diagnosis was to receive.

Having had a subarachnoid haemorrhage the day after full lockdown was imposed on the UK in March, Lee Atkinson faced the trauma of a lengthy recovery without seeing his family. Here, he shares his story of how he coped.

For millions of people across the country, the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic marked the start of a hugely challenging period. But for Lee Atkinson, that challenge was one of survival, after he experienced a subarachnoid haemorrhage the day after the UK went into lockdown on March 23. Having felt unwell for about three weeks, Lee, a car garage manager, was seeking medical attention for his developing situation.

Having been left with serious injuries in a cycling accident, Ian recovered from the physical impact but continued to suffer chronic pain. Here, he discusses how he has learnt to deal with it and get his life back on track.

“About two years ago, I was involved in quite a serious accident while I was out on my bike. I flew over handlebars and hit my head on the ground, leaving me unconscious. I was left with an array of injuries, including decompression of two of the disks in my spine, which needed an operation to resolve. But from being in the ambulance after my accident - the earliest point I can remember after coming off my bike - I was in enormous pain.

Sarah Coughlin experienced the horror of her head facing backwards after sustaining a brain injury. Here she shares her recovery journey with NR Times.

“I was wondering why my windscreen had black lines across it - until I realised I was looking out of my back window.” Sarah Coughlin recalls the horrific moment she realised her head had turned 180 degrees to face backwards, due to brain trauma she had suffered after sustaining a head injury. In the immediate aftermath of the injury, Sarah recalls little seemed wrong aside from a persistent headache.

For Leanne, who has MS, the opportunity to gather with loved ones on Christmas Day is one she feels she must decline. Here, she shares her reasons for choosing to be lonely this Christmas.

Christmas is my favourite time of year, and ordinarily I’d be out celebrating, seeing friends and family, and planning something really fantastic to see in the new year. But like for so many other people, 2020 is going to be so different. I’ll be completely on my own. And while under normal circumstances that would be the most heartbreaking Christmas I could imagine, this year it is undoubtedly my best option. At least, that way, I’ll still be here to enjoy 2021 and the years beyond that.

What began as a schoolboy dream to raise a few pounds to thank the medics who had supported him throughout his childhood has become a much-loved fundraising organisation which has generated over £245,000 for good causes. Here, Andrew Baker discusses his pride at being able to help fellow young hospital patients and brain injury survivors through his Play2Give organisation.

Having lived with a brain injury since birth, spending much of his younger years in and out of hospitals for ongoing treatment and undergoing major brain surgery at the age of 12, Andrew Baker decided he wanted to give something back. “The medical teams were amazing, they were so brilliant, and I decided I just wanted to say thank you. It will be 19 years ago in January when I was in year 10 at St Birinus School in Didcot and thought how nice it would be to raise some money for them as a way to give back,” he recalls.