I saw a speech and language specialist at my local hospital as I found I was having difficulty swallowing and often would start choking. As well as teaching me some exercises to help the muscles in my throat relax, she recommended I get in contact with the charity Headway. They run local support groups in most areas and she thought it might help me with my recovery.

I wasn’t sure if it would be for me but I was keen to try anything that would help me through this.

I contacted them and an Occupational Therapist called Annette came to see me. She ran a group who long term would like to move back into the work environment and she also explained more about brain injuries in general. She had coping methods. Often this helped identify some of the more common symptoms. The group got to see they weren’t alone in this long road to recovery. They met once every two weeks and all they asked was that we pay £5 to cover the cost of running the group.

The other members were all lovely people, many of whom had had strokes and some had a traumatic brain injury like me. We were all normal people who had suddenly had the pause button pressed on our lives. Annette was very patient. Some would interrupt or shout out because their injury meant they struggled to concentrate or put a filter on their thoughts. But we all got on and I did come away feeling I had learnt something. It helped me feel like I was doing something to take control of my situation.

As with many victims of brain injury, I struggled with depression. One day at the group I broke down uncontrollably. This loud wailing sound came out of me like I have never heard before or since. I remember Annette’s face looked both concerned and terrified at the same time. She took me to one side and we had a chat. Annette told me that they can also offer counselling and she could arrange for a lady called Chris to come see me at home.