Be Seen, Not Hurt Blog Series - A Message From Our CEO

'Be Seen, Not Hurt' 

Child Brain Injury Trust CEO rounds up last week's of campaign activity 

Here at the Child Brain Injury Trust we’re passionate about the families of brain injured children that we support across the UK, but we’re also passionate about promoting safety and awareness in the hope of preventing more children acquiring a serious injury as a result of an accident.

Many of the families we have supported over the past 22 years have a child who has acquired their brain injury as the result of an accident, either crossing the road, whilst cycling or as a passenger in a car.

Road accidents involving children have a devastating effect on a family, and are sadly still all too common. The aim of our week long ‘Be Seen, Not Hurt’ campaign was to highlight the dangers of roads as we head into the darker nights of winter once the clocks go back. We aimed our message at school age children, and focused on staying safe whilst cycling, scooting, skating and crossing roads, and we encouraged children, and adults, to always wear a helmet whilst taking part in certain activities.

It is not a new message, but it is an important message, and it is the first time we have concentrated on road safety in this way with such a targeted campaign. We have been really pleased with the response from families, schools, businesses and individuals who got involved and helped spread the word.

Our teams across the country worked hard all week, and in the weeks running up, to promote this campaign. They have been talking to hundreds of children in schools all over the country, from reception classes and nurseries through to secondary school children. They have also been busy handing out thousands of reflective ‘slap wrap’ bands, thanks to our campaign sponsor Thompson Solicitors who funded them.

It was a busy week too with social media. It has been great to hear the stories of families who have been affected by a brain injury, and from people passionate about promoting the use of safety helmets for cycling and other sports.

Please continue to share the stories and messages from the campaign to as many people as you can. If you'd like to support our work, please send a text donation to 70070. Simply text CBIT13 £10 (or whatever amount you'd like to donate). 

We are not stopping now, we’ll continue to promote safety and awareness throughout the year, and we will be using lots of the resources and messages that we have developed for this campaign every time we go out and visit schools.

Thank you to everyone who has supported this important campaign, and don’t forget, if you want any further information about the work of the charity, or safety and prevention, please get in touch and we’ll be very happy to talk to you.

Be Seen, Not Hurt Blog Series - Day 7

On the 2nd April 2008, Naomi’s life changed forever. She ran out and was hit by a skip truck. At the time Naomi was only three and a half years old.

It was not just Naomi life’s that changed that day; it affected her whole family. For our final campaign week blog, we want to highlight the effects of brain injury on the whole family. You often see parents’ cycling with their children – the child is wearing a helmet but the parent is not. The effects of brain injury are life long and can have a devastating impact on the whole family.

Following Naomi’s accident she was immediately taken by air ambulance to Great Ormond Street Hospital; Naomi was only in hospital for a couple of months and was discharged following rehabilitation in June 2008. Naomi had made a good physical recovery. But, as many parents will tell you, being discharged from the Hospital is just the start.

The biggest hurdle facing Naomi’s family was finding a way to manage Naomi’s behavioural problems that were a result of her accident. To start with Naomi could barely concentrate for over a minute. Naomi’s mother, Marylene, gave up her job and dedicated her time to focusing on her daughter.

Marylene was in contact with the Child Brain Injury Trust from a very early stage and we were able to offer the whole family support. One of the key areas the Charity helped with was training and education. Our Training Manager attended Naomi’s school and helped educate the staff on brain injury and ways to accommodate Naomi’s additional needs.

This week marked the start of the Child Brain Injury Trust’s first ever prevention campaign; this is a new form of education for us. Similar to the help offered to Naomi’s school following her accident, staff were able to go into schools this week raising awareness and spreading a preventative message about road safety.

Naomi is now 9 years old and her family are learning to live with the effects of brain injury. Marylene had these words to share with other families affected by ABI: “I want other families to know there is always light at the end of the tunnel. Turn obstacles in to opportunity to make things better and more manageable. Pain is overcome through progress as every achievement is celebrated. Children with an acquired brain injury do have the ability to excel in life. Be open-minded through open doors. Parents we are much bigger than our circumstances.”

All our blog posts this week have highlighted that life changing moments can happen in the blink of an eye and we can never fully prepare for them. The Child Brain Injury Trust is here to support the whole family following a childhood acquired brain injury, but we also hope that by sharing stories like Naomi’s people will ‘Be Seen, Not Hurt’.

The Child Brain Injury Trust is a registered charity; if you would like to pledge your support then please text CBIT13 £5 to 70070.

Be Seen, Not Hurt Blog Series - Day 6

'I would not have gone on my adventure without a helmet'

Round the World Cyclist Tom Bruce shares his experience  

A bit about me 

I have always liked cycling and I have always wanted to travel. The first time I linked the two passions was when I did a coast-to-coast ride in the UK with my mate Jonny after my GCSEs. I then did a trans-Alp tour from Munich to Lake Garda off-road, which was absolutely amazing. I fell in love with bike touring and decided I needed to do something bigger. I read books by people who’d done adventures in the past and decided to do a long tour. I thought about Europe at first – a tour around Europe sounded good. Then I started thinking what about Asia, was that possible? I decided it was, so I thought, if I could cross Europe and Asia, I might as well try to cycle around the world. I thought I might as well do it properly, so I set myself the challenge of cycling every inch of the distance, no public transport was allowed! I left with no idea whether I would succeed and that was part of the excitement for me.

An overview of my trip – around the world by bike 

I left home on 13th March, 2011 and cycled from my front door, across the UK to Dover. I took the ferry to France and cycled along an amazing route through Europe, with a new country every couple of days. Highlights included the Black Forest, the Danube River bike track and finishing Europe in Istanbul.

The Caucuses came next and were absolutely beautiful. Georgia is my favourite country from the trip. Amazing mountains, the friendliest people I’ve met, beautiful Orthodox Christian churches, amazing food and a brilliant capital city. After crossing Azerbaijan, I took the Caspian Sea ferry to the middle of nowhere, the lonely city of Aktau in Western Kazakhstan. I remember sitting on the deck of the ferry across the Caspian Sea, looking at maps and trying to persuade myself that what I was about to do was possible. I arrived in Aktau and set off into the desert. Quickly the temperature shot up to 47 degress and I had to take 23 kg of water to make sure I would have enough between water stops. The road was dreadful, cut up, corrugated, with sand traps and no shelter from the sun. I was constantly getting shaken about and rattled around, as was my bike, which did an amazing job of surviving and carrying my luggage. It was so hot that that the rear wheel rim heated up enough to melt holes in the inner tube. I got ill on two occasions and was sick a couple of times. I had to cycle 100 km per day over about 2,000 km to get through Uzbekistan before my visa ran out. It was a very tough three weeks, but looking back on this, it was probably the most rewarding part of the trip. It was followed by the most amazing cities I’ve ever been to, the ancient Silk Road trading towns of Khiva, Bukhara and Samarkand in Uzbekistan.

The part of the trip that I was most looking forward to was the Pamir Highway in Tajikistan. Unfortunately, I got very ill with a tummy bug and was worried that I wouldn’t be fit enough to cycle over the 4,000+ metre passes before my visa expired. I took a day off in Khorog because I was feeling too weak to ride, then left the following morning. I managed to ride a morning, and then met a Pamiri doctor, who took me in for the night. He was an amazing person. I just slept all day and drank a local remedy that he concocted from herbs. Whatever it was worked and the next day I was good to go. I cycled the Wakhan valley along the Afghan border then over a series of high mountain passes on the stunning Pamir Highway.

Krygyzstan was fantastic, full of high altitude pastures and nomads who invited me into their yurts. The gone-off mare’s milk was disgusting though!

China was a great experience, but a difficult too. The people in the small towns and villages find it very difficult to communicate with foreigner, which makes travel a challenge. I cycled with my cousin Phil through China though and this helped during the more difficult times. We crossed a large desert before reaching the Tibetan Plateau, and then cycled through the industrial east, to the coast. We made time to visit many tourist attractions, including a large Buddhist Monastery, the Terracotta Army and the Great Wall.

America was another world from what I was used to and I suffered reverse culture shock, looking at the vast amount of wealth in San Francisco when I arrived! My friend Harry joined me for this part of the trip and we got really into the riding though. We cycled through beautiful National Parks, like Yosemite and Death Valley, before crossing the Rockies and finally followed the gulf coast to Florida.

Wearing a helmet 

I would not have gone on my adventure without a helmet. To me, it is a necessity. Anyone riding a bike should wear a helmet, whether on-road or off. When I was about 14, I had a nasty fall on my mountain bike. I am a good rider, and can ride technical descents quickly and confidently, but there is nothing I could have done about this fall. My front inner tube got a massive pinch puncture and deflated in about a second. I hit a rock, when flying and landed on my head. The back of my helmet hit another large rock and smashed and cracked. My head was absolutely fine and I walked away with nothing worse than a grazed knee, thanks to the helmet.

Helmets are cheap and comfortable and even look pretty good these days – they’ve come a long way in the last few years. Vents keep your head cool and if you do a lot of night riding (like I do) they’re a great place to mount a light. It makes a big difference to have a light on your head, rather than the handlebars because it is always shining where you are looking.

So in short, get out and ride… but not without a helmet.

For more about my trip, including my blog, photos, route, kit list and much more, visit www.tombrucecycling.com 

My book, “Every Inch of the Way; My Bike Ride around the World”, is now available on Amazon and tells the full story of my journey around the world.

Be Seen Not Hurt Blog Series - Day 5

Ben’s Story – Ben’s Mum Sonia shares the story of Ben’s brain injury 

Ben with his younger sister, Mia. 

When Ben was 16 months old he contracted meningitis and septicaemia. The week previous to this he had a bad tummy bug and was very unwell and just didn't pick up to his usual happy self. On the Sunday he had a slight temperature and was very cuddly but had no other symptoms at this point. By 5am on the Monday morning he was fitting.  

Ben was admitted into the John Radcliffe Children’s Hospital in Oxford where he spent two days before he needed a transfer to Great Ormond Street Children's Hospital for specialist care because he had kidney failure.  

Ben was a real fighter. Every few days on life support Ben would try to come off it himself for a short time and eventually he managed it for longer periods at a time. Then his kidneys regained function, but he was left with a bad left sided weakness. He couldn't talk, walk, eat solid food for a while but he was here and with us. 

After a few months we realised there were other problems. By the age of 3 he was walking again, talking and nothing was standing in his way, but he's nearly 7 now and the problems are prevalent in every minute of his life. He has no off switch and cries at night because he can't switch his brain off. He gets a 'fuzzy head' a lot of days that he just can't explain.  

Ben is a very caring and wonderful person who looks after his friends at school. He's very good at school, but finds it hard to concentrate at times and battles fatigue most days. He finds concentrating at school a problem and he hums continually but doesn't realise it's happening, so when he comes home he lets all of his frustrations out. 

He also seems to have lost his barriers to basic safety awareness and is a lot more impulsive. His lack of danger awareness, in and out of the home, is a real worry, especially around roads and traffic. 

After everything he has been through he is doing amazingly well though and is in a mainstream school with supportive teachers and friends and he loves getting up in the morning (most of the time), it's just a continual worry about his day to day safety.  

We are now working with the Child Brain Injury Trust and Dogs for the Disabled on a pilot project using a ‘community dog’ to try and help Ben cope better with some day to day situations. Over the next few months Ben will be spending a few hours a week with the dog and its handler, and they will together be working on developing Ben’s awareness of danger. 

In particular the project will aim to use the dog to encourage Ben to be aware of traffic, to avoid stepping off the pavement whilst walking and to learn to stop at the roadside and be able to cross safely. We are all looking forward to getting started and are keen to see what results are possible. We’re very proud that Ben has recently learnt to ride his bike, and so any improvement of awareness of dangers around roads will be a great result. 

Be Seen Not Hurt Blog Series - Day 4

A bicycle is the greatest thing 

Adventurer & Author Alastair Humphreys shares stories from a life on the road. 

A bicycle is the greatest thing I have ever owned. As a young child it gave me my first sensation of speed and excitement.

In my teens I discovered mountain biking. It was fun, thrilling and cool. It got me fit without having to do boring stuff like "exercise". It showed me wild and beautiful places. And it taught me skills - balance and coordination and perception - with the heady, terrifying, thrilling  undercurrent that if I screwed up -when I screwed up- I was going to crash. And it was going to hurt.

The nervous anticipation of this, like wiggling on a loose tooth, is masochistic, fun, and addictive. If you don't crash occasionally on a mountain bike then you ain't doin' it hard enough. Or something like that.

After university a bicycle showed me the world. I graduated with a Biological Sciences degree, spent an extra year qualifying as a science teacher, and then I hit the road. Tramps like us, baby we were born to ride.
To climb onto a bicycle, a machine that cost just a few hundred pounds, and be able to be magically transported around the entire planet, is extraordinary. Those were the best days of my life. I rose with the sun, cycled all day, and in the evening as the sun was about to set I would pull off the road into a quiet field and camp for the night. I repeated this cycle of simple freedom for over four years.

My bike ride took me from my front door to Cape Town, from southern Patagonia to the Arctic Ocean in northern Alaska, a land of grizzly bears and enormous skies. And it took me home across Asia, via a Siberian winter and the golden road to Samarkand. Along the way was such variety - from those brutal days and nights at -40 on Siberia's Road of Bones to the oppressive heat of Sudan's Nubian Desert.

The only thing that did not vary much were the humans. Meandering through 60 countries I met a fabulous, totally random cross section of humanity. And virtually everyone I met was good. The world is a good place, filled with many, many good people. So I quickly stopped worrying about murderers and terrorists and all the bad crazy terrible stuff everyone forecast would happen to me. Sure, you have to be careful and a little lucky, but by and large I felt safe on that ride.

The only danger then, the only thing really likely to end my trip, was the traffic on the roads. Good though the people of the world may be, they are not generally good drivers! But I successfully and safely cycled 46,000 miles round the world.

I ride a road bike today and love it. I cycle around London on Bromptons and Boris bikes. So I am not scare-mongering about cycling on the roads. Nor do I believe that wearing a helmet should be made legally compulsory. But I choose to wear a helmet when I ride. It's light, it's no longer un-cool and it may one day save my life. I hope not to have to rely on it.

Far better to be a competent rider and aware of your surroundings, whether in Kenya or Croydon, or hurtling as fast as you dare down a twisted path through a forest.

A bicycle is the greatest thing I have ever owned. It has given me so much. The small hassle and expense of getting a helmet is a tiny price to pay for all those good days, and all the good days still to come.

Alastair
www.alastairhumphreys.com 
@al_humphreys 
Adventurer | Author | Motivational Speaker

Be Seen Not Hurt Blog Series - Day 3

Jack’s Story – Mum Terri shares the story of Jack’s brain injury 

Christmas time will never be the same for Jack and his mum after he suffered a severe brain injury the day after Boxing Day back in 2011 whilst visiting family members.  Jack was just 2 years old, and as most independent toddlers do, in the blink of an eye, he ran from the driveway into the road onto a one way street straight into the path of a car that was pulling a trailer.  Jack wasn't hit by the car itself hit.  Jack ran between the back of the car and the front of the trailer.  The reinforced corner of the trailer hit jack up the left side of his face and knocked jack down into the road.  The tyre of the trailer then drove over Jack’s head fracturing his skull and face and squashing his head.  Jack had an open wound inside his mouth from which he was losing a lot of blood. Paramedics arrived and Jack’s mouth, nose and throat were packed to stem the bleeding and Jack was flown by air ambulance to Birmingham Children's Hospital.

Jack was put into an induced coma in a critical condition and transferred to Birmingham Children's Hospital PICU where mum, Terri, was told that Jack had sustained a severe traumatic brain injury.  Doctors extubated Jack on the 5th January and estimated that he would hold his own from 2-24 hours before he would stop breathing.  His mum was warned that Jack also could choke on his own saliva as there would be no capability to swallow. If Jack stopped breathing, there were two possible options.  Option one, a tracheotomy or the unthinkable second option, take the ventilation tube out and let Jack pass away peacefully with no pain.

But, ever the fighter, little Jack breathed for himself on the first attempt.  Terri, Jack’s mum, then spent many a sleepless night looking at machines and supporting Jack through the many complications he would face over the coming weeks.  Then, the time came when Jack was allowed to return home for the weekend. Terri says  “It was scary taking Jack home that weekend because I'd become his full time carer, nurse and mummy overnight.  The realization of reality was heart wrenching. I'd put a double mattress for us to sleep on the floor in the living room while we had our weekend home.  Jack was still unresponsive and just thrashing around.  He showed no acknowledgement of being home.”

Jack then returned to hospital, went through months of therapies, learnt to use a standing frame and was weaned off a liquid diet onto a diet of soft foods.  Jack was in hospital for 3 months whilst Terri worked with the hospital staff to get jack home and into the community.  Jack came home and his mum became his full time carer.  At home, the living room was padded out with mattresses up the walls and on the floors whilst Terri worked with the professional’s direction and did therapies with Jack for at least 8 hours of the day. Terri was told that the first 12 months were crucial.

Slowly but surely Jack came on.  By Christmas 2012, a year after his accident, Jack could stand independently and try a few steps.  Jack could colour match and shape match using jigsaws.

So, to today.  Jack walks independently but is unstable and prone to falls and can’t walk long distances.  He also wears a protective helmet and boots. Jack has hyper mobility in all joints and has reported vision loss. He has a total loss of hearing on the left and the left side of his face is non expressive. Jack cannot talk but can say ‘no’ in moments of frustration.  Jack is still in nappies and Jack has lots of moments of frustration lasting anything from 5 minutes to 3 hours and he has a soft play ball pit to put him in at those times for his own safety as Jack has no regard for hurting himself or others during a meltdown.

Terri says “Living with ABI is not easy, but we are adapting.  There are always new barriers to get through and Jack is now delayed in many areas but has the potential to keep getting better. We have continuous appointments, therapies, etc for the foreseeable future.  But, Jack is a living little boy.  He is very independent, very adventurous.  Now, when we go to the park I have to climb the adventure park with him. I guess this is how life will be for us from now on - an adventure, but I will be there to help Jack to face the many challenges that lie ahead. In Jack’s head, he is a big boy who should be able to do what the other children are doing.  I am there to help him along the way.”

Be Seen, Not Hurt Blog Series - Day 2

Say Yes to Helmets

Adventurer and World Record holding Skateboarder Dave Cornthwaite shares his story 

A few years ago I took a pay cut in pursuit of a happier life. Well, if I'm honest, it was more than that. I quit my job as a graphic designer in a downtown office in Swansea and decided to skateboard across Australia. I figured I'd see more; meet some interesting folks; get a tan. 

Since then, life has been different. I'm an adventurer now; it's on my business card. I've had three books published, a couple of films made about my travels, and I value my memories more than anything. After all, that's exactly what I'll have to measure my life by when the time comes to look backwards and assess it all.

I'm currently 8 journeys in to my Expedition1000 project. 25 journeys of 1000 miles or more, each using a different form of non-motorised transport. All in all, I've travelled about 8000 miles on road and another 8000 miles on water under my own steam, but I'd like to focus on the road bits, if you don't mind.

In addition to skateboarding the length of Britain and across Australia, I rode a tandem bike 1400 miles from Vancouver to Vegas, ElliptiGO'd 1970 miles across Europe and rode a Bikecar 1000.3 miles across the American South, between Memphis and Miami.

A Bikecar? A what? It was a 4 wheeled pedal car, 5 foot 7 inches wide. Two people could pedal although I was alone for the majority of the journey. Her name was Priscilla and she weighed in at a quarter of a tonne. I pushed her up the hills, heavy old girl.

In the lead-up to every expedition I'm bombarded with warnings from friends, strangers, officials, anyone with a pulse. It's the nature of doing something different that scares people but I always feel like the biggest danger is being on a road.

'Watch out for Memphis drivers', my friends said as I was preparing for the Bikecar ride.

After 18.6 miles, I realised why. A speeding car struck the vehicle to my rear, spun and knocked the Bikecar and me off track. We ended up thirty metres off the road. Ever so lucky to survive with no injury. I was shaken but decided to continue the journey, which I'm so glad I did despite it continuing to be the most dangerous thing I've ever done.

I have five friends who have been either killed or seriously injured whilst cycling on the road. One of them wasn't wearing a helmet and he's not with us anymore.

To a degree you're sacrificing total control and safety because those two things are then in other people's hands. One dropped iPod, a momentary glance at a text, alcohol in the bloodstream, a sneeze: all of these things and more can mean the difference between a safe, enjoyable cycle ride and a visit to A&E.

With all of this in mind, it's imperative for everyone on the road to take as many precautions as they can. Be visible. Be careful. Be respectful - roads are for everyone. And wear a helmet. Quite often it's the difference between life and death, and there are always more journeys to enjoy. Please, protect that possibility.

Dave Cornthwaite
www.davecornthwaite.com
@DaveCorn 

Be Seen, Not Hurt Blog Series - Day 1

Adam’s Story – Anita McQuillan shares the story of her son’s brain injury 

On a quiet Saturday morning in September 2011, my son Adam was waiting excitedly for his Granddad to collect him for a trip to the caravan. He wanted to pick something up from the local shop to take with him on the journey – an off the cuff decision - something which changed the course of our family’s lives forever.

At about 9.30am he pressed the button at a set of traffic lights near our home, looked both ways and – having decided the way was clear – rushed across the road.

He was wearing his brightly coloured footie kit and had crossed that road many times before and thought he’d played it safe.

What Adam didn’t know was that, just out of view, a car was approaching him and would collide with him.  At age 8 ½ his life was changed forever.

The ambulance crew that visited the scene gave him a coma score of three – one of the lowest scores that can be given – before transferring him to hospital in a critical condition.

The image of seeing him there for the first time will never leave me. Clothes cut away from him, open wounds that hadn’t been stitched, tubes protruding from him and the sound of the ventilator. His face was almost unrecognisable, even to me.

The first scan results confirmed our worst fears. He had suffered multiple fractures to his skull, had bone fractures across his medial orbits and sinuses, a generalised cerebral oedema and a parenchymal haemorrhage in his frontal lobe. This was the reality facing my oldest child and only son. Many parents reading this won’t know what those medical terms mean, and  I can only hope that they never have to learn.

Adam was taken to theatre for a tracheotomy and gastrostomy, and had intracranial pressure monitoring bolts put in place to measure the pressure inside his head and an external ventricular drain to help relive the increased pressure.

The next 72 hours were the worst we have ever had to face as a family. He was transferred to a specialist intensive care unit where we again waited for Adam to give us any sign of hope. Doctors prepared us for the worst and said that even if Adam did survive, the chances were that the brain injury was so severe that he wouldn't be able to lead a full life.

December came and we saw small signs of progress. He started to emerge from the coma state and step by step we started to help Adam to slowly rebuild his life.

Our entire life was turned upside down. Acquired brain injury affects families like a stone thrown into a pond – that initial hard impact, followed by ever-increasing ripples. I moved into the hospital to be closer to Adam but that left his Daddy and our six month old daughter at home. Daddy of course came up every day, but it was desperately hard, and the effects took their toll..

My daughter too, despite being less than a year old when this first began, has not escaped the after-effects of brain injury. Some of our little girl’s most important milestones are all forever linked to that traumatic time. She took her first steps in the hospital, ‘Adam’ was her first word and even her earliest memories are of machines, and tubes, and Mummy not being at home.

As time went on, we watched the tubes being removed, procedures taking place and came to understand enough medical terms to last a lifetime.

Finally, the news came that we could start to plan to bring our boy home. His first visit took place on Boxing Day – the best Christmas gift our family could ever hope to receive. Words can’t explain how happy I was to have my family all together to celebrate Adam’s little sister’s first Christmas.

Adam finally left hospital in March 2012 with a gastrostomy feed and fully confined to a wheelchair. But the little boy who went walking to the local shop didn’t come back to us. Adam’s speech has been taken from him and while I long every day to hear ‘Mummy’ or ‘I love you’ or ‘I’m happy’ come from his lips, his smiles still tell me everything I need to know. Just as they always did

Once we got home, we wanted to find something positive to focus on – a way to give something back to everyone who’d supported us during Adam’s journey.

We called our idea “Adam’s Wish” and set about raising over £5,000 for the intensive care unit that had taken such good care of him. We also gathered 549 toys for the hospital’s Christmas appeal.

Perhaps it was karma, but shortly before Christmas Adam was chosen to go on a life changing holiday with Destination Florida. The week he spent there has undoubtedly changed him forever; he returned to us filled with new confidence and laughter having made life-long friends. We went on to raise £5,000 for the initiative so that other children with brain injuries can benefit too.

As a family we had been working tirelessly since his discharge to get Adam access to the therapy, support and schooling he needed to rebuild his life. It was exhausting but knowing that organisations like Destination Florida and the Child Brain Injury Trust were there was a source of comfort.

We were also being supported by Thompsons Solicitors through a challenging legal case to secure the funds we needed to get Adam the best possible care. As a family, we were angry about what had happened to our little boy so our fundraising efforts gave us something positive to focus on.

We also concentrated our energy on rebuilding our family life, and Adam is now the proud big brother to not one but two little sisters.

We haven’t reached the end of the road yet and Adam’s recovery is still on going. He’s learning to walk again but is likely to always rely on a wheel chair and his speech hasn’t returned but to us, he is a miracle.

Now we’re all looking to the future. Adam has started back at mainstream primary school and we’re working on gathering the resources we need to give Adam the best possible future.

Today, we’re a family who has found hope again. It’s something that Adam has taught us - hope that things can get better, despite all of the odds being against you. He is an inspiration to me, a reminder that when you think nothing can heal the wounds or stop the hurt; you’ve got to keep fighting and start to live life.

Adam was 8 ½ when he was knocked down, but he didn’t give up and neither will we. I hope that sharing Adam’s story will help drive the point home. We’d taught him the rules of the road and while not a day goes by that I don’t wish he’d waited for that green man – how many of us can say we’ve never nipped over the road when we thought the way was clear?

He was wearing bright clothing. He’d looked out for traffic. But a driver took away Adam’s chance of safely crossing the road and their own chances of being able to stop in time.

Don’t fall foul of the same mistakes.

Drivers, stick to the speed limit and watch out for children. Don’t assume they’ll use the roads in the same way an adult would. We need to protect them, both as parents and drivers because as they are children they can sometimes make little mistakes with huge consequences. Always approach child pedestrians with extra caution.

Make sure your children are as visible as possible when they’re using the road – the Child Brain Injury Trust and Thompsons are giving away high visibility slap wraps at schools throughout the country so make sure your child wears theirs. Make sure they’re seen, not hurt.

Reach for the Skies

Today's Friday Fundraisers are the intrepid team from Paterson Recruitment in Bicester. They have chosen us as their charity of the year for 2013 and have kicked things off by committing to a sponsored skydive!

Some of the more daring members of staff - Stephanie Harkin, Helen Bailey, & James Varnell - have taken up the challenge and will be leaping 10,000 feet from a plane at Hinton Airfield, just North of Bicester, on Saturday 30th November. They have even talked their company owner, Gary Paterson, into taking part - a good way to lead by example and motivate the team!

After their training and safety briefings in the morning they will hopefully take to the skies at around midday to take part in their freefall. We’ll be going along on the day to cheer them on, and would welcome anyone else to come along and join us.

If you would like show your support to the team from Paterson Recruitment, and the Child Brain Injury Trust, visit their Just Giving page:  www.justgiving.com/PatersonRecruitment

Their fundraising is an exciting way to support the charity and continue to raise awareness for us. Please help us to spread the word and visit our website for more information on our services and forthcoming events.

If you would like to take on a challenge to support us, or would like to talk about other less extreme
fundraising events, get in touch now.