Imagine the phone call if you can • I have to inform you that your child is in hospital in a coma, or, I have to inform you that a member of your family is in hospital in a coma • We suspect there may be an internal head injury • If this is the case, then the impact could be a permanent disability the severity of which is as yet unknown. Raising awareness The impact of brain injury is not yet fully recognised. My intention is to raise awareness of this through my work with schools, groups, and organisations. I was the victim of an accident in which a head injury was sustained creating severe brain and physical disability, and altering my life forever. I am here to deliver my Head Injury Presentation to your School/College/Group, for those of you about to take driving lessons, and Motorcycle Training courses, and even to those of you who will become young parents with children that are very vulnerable to this these type of accidents all through their start in life. To encourage you to be more aware, of the potential dangers. The purpose of my visit The purpose of my presentation is to deliver my personal experiences and journey to who and where I am today This is designed to encourage your head injury awareness. Head injury can be sustained though any daily life activity and would like to explain the traumatic impact that my injury has had on my life. This has not prevented me from maintaining a positive attitude to life, or my ability to remain an active member of society.
What is a head injury? What do most people think? Is it striking, hitting or bumping your head? Before I suffered a head injury, I thought it was just striking your head or having your head hit. What causes a head injury? In a head injury there can be movement of the brain inside the skull. A large proportion of head injuries do, in addition cause brain injuries. In the first instance there may not be any external signs that an internal injury has occurred. How can head injuries occur? The statistics are very clear. There are over one million head injuries in the UK each year. Nearly half of these are road related that is a COLASSAL number! The next largest group are home related. What can happen to the brain in an accident? Bruising of the brain. Bleeding of the brain. Skull fracture. Brain cell damage. Severe brain cell destruction. There are 1.2 million deaths and 50 million injuries every year. Every 30 seconds someone is killed on the roads worldwide. WHO WILL BE NEXT? These figures are from the charity called ‘Brake’ the road safety charity, www.brake.org.uk
Awareness of head injury. I can give the awareness to how easy it is to suffer a head injury ! And to explain ALL the meanings of the words ‘Head Injury’ And the many ways how they can occur What is a head injury? Knocking your head against anything at anytime ! Being assaulted Recreational drug taking Sports accident Road traffic accidents Brain tumour and haemorrhage
Your Brain is your computer And engine for EVERY THING YES every thing in and around your WHOLE body !
My Racing Days
Grasstrack and Speedway Racing My Crash Helmet with ACU Approval In Hospital in a Coma after my Crash Haybags My Trike
My Story The main reason why I started giving these talks to teenagers is because at the age of 32 I suffered a major internal head injury. I had spent all my youth doing what people state as dangerous racing, motorcar and motorcycle sports, and thought I had been taught correctly, and knew all the dangers and understood that if I had an accident and broke a bone or suffered cuts and bruises that a week or so I would repair, and that using a very expensive "Gold Star" ACU (Auto Cycle Union) approved, top of the range protected crash helmet that at least my head would be protected ! But No. I can’t remember a single thing about the day it happened at ALL ! "Bank Holiday Monday 16th April 1990" And for about 8 months after, as the accident I had put me into a Coma for three weeks in intensive care, and then into a total of four Hospitals and two rehabilitation centres for 23 months. I made a lucky and MIRACULOUS recovery to get as I am today. But also it had made big changes in my life, my marriage had finished, due to the state I was in at first, and that pushed home to me, how the traumatic suffering a head injury can be in life. At the age of 32 when the accident happened, and knowing NOTHING about "Head Injury" during those earlier years, especially after spending an awful lot of my youth with off road motorsport. It made me angry not knowing how easy a head injury could happen, and that it could happen, like it did me and also to anyone else without striking your head AT ALL! It really opened my eyes to see that no real education about "Head Injuries" was being taught! After my two years in the four hospitals, and 6 months in the 2 rehabilitation homes I spent further time with the charity HEADWAY, where I read all of the exceptionally large amount of head injury information, and that there were in the UK per year a million accidents that happen in the home, or at work and play etc, the list is endless! And what shook me was that the biggest amounts happen in one instance, and that was, half of the million were caused by on the road traffic accidents! Yes HALF A MILLION head injuries alone happen due to road traffic accidents on our roads per year in the UK!
This inspired me get a group together with the help of Headway and then to go around schools teaching teenagers the awareness of head injury's that happen in road traffic accidents and around the home. I started giving my presentations voluntary with the help of Headway in 1995 but due to the lack of awareness from schools and the general public and some funding these presentations were not perceived as important, and with Headway they have all their other commitments, so unfortunately this was not able to continue. Trying to find, and get work in the early days of my rehab was impossible as people did not want to employ a disabled person, so after the return my driving licence and through a friend I found a part time voluntary job two days a week in a 'Unicef' charity shop and worked there for two years, that gave me back my self confidence, self esteem, and the will to get back into the real life circle. Every year where I live at Christmas the high street has two Victorian shopping nights where all the roads are closed down from the traffic and all of the shops stay open till 10pm, all the shop's staff dress in Victorian costumes and they have marching bands, and pop groups, choirs and hot chess nut stalls Etc, and many of the public also dress in Victorian clothes, lovely spectacular evenings. So in the shop we had decided to join in, we looked in Yellow Pages for our local fancy dress shop, and the nearest one to us was 11 miles away in Chelmsford! Now that really got my mind working again and thinking that Maldon needs a fancy dress hire shop! So with a lot of help and encouragement and my will power I now had back, I opened a fancy dress hire shop called "Dressing Fancy" This was such a gem of laughs and fun to do that, I ran this for over ten years, it also helped me to get back my full confidence, and part time, I was still doing the voluntary talks with Headway. After the business was sold, and the awareness talks with Headway were few and very far between. It really Push Push Pushed me so hard into getting my awareness talks going full time. So now I have my own head injury awareness group called "Head First" Where I am giving my presentations about head injury awareness! If people could just spend a few hour's in my head they would realise just how much it changes your life. Richard John Willis
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