The Brain Injury And Road To Recovery
In 2013, I was found having a fit in a Cheltenham street by an old next door neighbour after having been out for a run.
It was discovered I had suffered a subarachnoid haemorrhage – or a bleed on the brain – while I was working as a Rugby Journalist in Gloucestershire.
“My original diagnosis was I would not move the left-hand side of my body ever again – which included walking.”
I was rushed to to the nearest specialist brain injury hospital – just outside of nearby Bristol – before being transferred to Salisbury Rehabilitation Hospital for nine months where I mastered basics such as learning to walk again – and eventually returned to work in 2014.
I made it back in time to achieve my dream of reporting at the 2015 Rugby World Cup and 2016 Junior Rugby World Cup on home soil – my second and third showpiece events having travelled to the other side of the world for the 2011 New Zealand Rugby World Cup.
Family, Running And Finding A New Path
My injury has made me appreciate and recognise achievement – and my biggest ones would have to be somehow managing to convince my amazingly supportive girlfriend Amy, to marry me in 2016, before the safe arrival of our beautiful son Reggie, a year later.
Unfortunately, I had to give up my career as a sports journalist in 2017 due to the pressures of the industry.
But both Amy and Reggie were there at the finish line to see me complete the 2018 London Marathon in five hours – the hottest 26-miler in our nation’s capital on record.
“… due to the pressures of the industry.”
I have found exercise – especially running – to be one of the biggest helps in my recovery – and since London, I have also ran three Leicester Half Marathons and three Bournemouth Half Marathons.
A photo from the 2018 London Marathon finish line in my Headway vest with Reggie – my two greatest achievements.
Finding Joy In The Positives
Alongside Amy, the other biggest help in my recovery has been Headway – the National brain injury charity.
They have granted me the chance to sit in a room with a group of fellow brain injury survivors – an opportunity you just don’t get in any other walk of life – giving you a place back in the world again.
The mantra which has got me through the last 13 years has been ‘focus on the positives, don’t dwell on the negatives’ – a mindset Amy installed into me – which has changed my life.
“… focus on the positives, don’t dwell on the negatives… “
It is too easy to think about what you have lost or missed out upon, so instead, I choose to seek out the amazing, incredible smaller things in life which we are so fortunate to experience – and sometimes get overlooked.
Cooking, running, going for a pint with my brother, getting to spend the occasional week with Reggie, driving anywhere, or every so often seeing my name in print again on a freelance basis, bring me a lot of joy.
These are the things I choose to focus on – not the fact Amy and Reggie live 200 miles away from me now on the south coast.