Chesterfield family supports Action for Brain Injury Week
The mother of a man from Eckington in Derbyshire who was left almost blinded after a serious head injury at work is supporting Action for Brain Injury Week 2009.
Mark Downs, from Castlehill in Eckington is currently going through an intensive rehabilitation programme after suffering a severe brain injury while at work in October 2007.
Sandra Downs, Mark’s Mother, said: “Mark suffered a serious head injury and without the help of paramedics things could have turned out much worse. Raising awareness about the effects of brain injury is very important to us. Without support from the medical specialists that treated Mark we would never have been able to get to the stage of Mark’s rehabilitation that we are at now.
"The hard work will continue and the road to Mark leading a full and independent life is just beginning."
theheadinjurysite talks to Anne Morley from Headway, the brain injury charity
How did you first get involved with your local support group?
I was a volunteer for Headway House Manchester for many years and was asked many times to join their committee, but I had a small family at the time and felt I couldn’t give them the commitment they required. It was there I met my friend and colleague Noreen Kelly (Chair of Salford & Trafford); she invited me on to the Salford & Trafford Committee and for me the time was right so I gladly accepted.
What can Headway Salford offer for your members and supporters?
Headway House Salford & Trafford offers a relaxed and safe environment for people with A.B.I. to attend regularly; a place where they will be accepted, valued and appreciated for who and what they are, be enabled to contribute in some measure as well as receive; be encouraged to engage in a very wide range of activities, through which they can work to improve their skills, and at the same time move again into a wider and richer social life than they may have experienced since their brain injury. The Headway House concept may be defined as a long term, activity/therapy centre for people with brain injury. It is designed to continue to encourage and assist improvement and performance within the areas of cognitive behavioural and emotional impairment arising from brain injury.