Risky Business - success

Andrew Curran - Alderhay

Rachel, Theresa and Claire show off the cake at the Child Brain Injury Trust stand

A delegate deep in thought

We had a fabulous conference on 29th February and thoroughly enjoyed the day.  Over 230 delegates attended our 2012 conference, held at the Hilton Hotel in Birmingham.  The day focused on the topic of infant and primary school aged children who acquire a brain injury, and their families.  The programme was full of emotion and some humour thanks to our brilliant speakers.

Andrew Curran (top photo) opened the day with the science behind the developing brain and as always made the most complex subject, simple and easy to digest.  Andrew, you are our champion and we are humbled by your commitment to our charity.

Dave Stones (father of William, aged 3) was an inspirational and moving speaker - you are brave and 'real' and we are honoured to support you.

The exhibition hall was full to bursting with stands full of great information and 'give-aways' - Compass Costs cuddly dragons definitely won the best 'give-away' of the day.

As you can see in the photo above, our stand was very colourful and full of lovely cakes made by Child Brain Injury staff Anne-Marie and Lisa - the samples proved very popular! They used the recipes from our new fundraising cook book, '21 treats for 21 years' which has a foreword and recipes supplied by the queen of cakes Mary Berry as well as Raymond Blanc and some of the young people we support. These are available to purchase, email Anne-Marie for more information: anne-mariemacmillian@cbituk.org.

We also signed lots of wannabe challengers up for a Challenge 21 - see our main site for more information on what's happening or contact anne-mariemacmillian@cbituk.org for further details.

All in all it was a super day and I am so proud of everyone who played a part.

See you next year,

Lisa Turan
CEO

Welcome to Holland by Emily Perl Kingsley

Welcome To Holland
by
Emily Perl Kingsley


I am often asked to describe the experience of raising a child with a disability - to try to help people who have not shared that unique experience to understand it, to imagine how it would feel.  It's like this......

When you're going to have a baby, it's like planning a fabulous vacation trip - to Italy.  You buy a bunch of guide books and make your wonderful plans. The Coliseum.  The Michelangelo David.  The gondolas in Venice.  You may learn some handy phrases in Italian.  It's all very exciting.

After months of eager anticipation, the day finally arrives.  You pack your bags and off you go.  Several hours later, the plane lands. The stewardess comes in and says, "Welcome to Holland."

"Holland?!?" you say. "What do you mean Holland?? I signed up for Italy!  I'm supposed to be in Italy.  All my life I've dreamed of going to Italy."

But there's been a change in the flight plan.  They've landed in Holland and there you must stay.

The important thing is that they haven't taken you to a horrible, disgusting, filthy place, full of pestilence, famine and disease.  It's just a different place.

So you must go out and buy new guide books. And you must learn a whole new language.  And you will meet a whole new group of people you would never have met.

It’s just a different place.  It's slower-paced than Italy, less flashy than Italy.  But after you've been there for a while and you catch your breath, you look around.... and you begin to notice that Holland has windmills....and Holland has tulips.  Holland even has Rembrandts.

But everyone you know is busy coming and going from Italy... and they're all bragging about what a wonderful time they had there.  And for the rest of your life, you will say "Yes, that's where I was supposed to go. That's what I had planned."

And the pain of that will never, ever, ever, ever  go away... because the loss of that dream is a very very significant loss.

But... if you spend your life mourning the fact that you didn't get to Italy, you may never be free to enjoy the very special, the very lovely things ... about Holland.

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©1987 by Emily Perl Kingsley. All rights reserved.  Reprinted by permission of the author.