In 2010 , at the age of 64 my mum became poorly. She was just walking upstairs one day and she was struck by excruciating head pain. She plodded on for a further THREE WEEKS with an horrendous headache (🙈😥) before she started to be sick and lose the use of one of her eyes. At which point we convinced her to stop being brave and stubborn and get to A&E. My mum is of the generation that doesn’t really go to the drs and will try and stitch their own limbs back on so when she said yes, get me to hospital, we knew it was bad.

And it was bad. She had a brain aneurysm, it had bled and she also had a huge arterial venous malformation(AVM). She had the aneurysm coiled and eventually had gamma knife surgery on the AVM (which led to its own complications; cerebral oedema, adrenal gland failure….)

We are now 11 years post aneurysm and the health issues it left my mum with affect her everyday. She lost the use of one eye, she still experiences headaches, the use of steroids for brain swelling left her with Cushing syndrome and eventual collapse from adrenal gland failure, she forgets things, she gets confused and muddled…..

She struggles. Everyday. But she’s here and there were times we thought she wouldn’t be ❤️ I’m doing the London Marathon for Headway and the work they do. But more importantly, for my Mum, to show her that  I love her and as well as being her carer, I’m a runner 🏃🏼‍♀️ And I can do a marathon!

🥰

Brain injury can challenge every aspect of your life; walking, talking, thinking and feeling and the losses can be severe and permanent. It can mean losing both the life you once lived and the person you once were.We all think 'it will never happen to me', but every year around 350,000 people are admitted to hospital with an acquired brain injury. That's one every 90 seconds.A brain injury can happen to anyone, at any time. When it does, Headway is here to help.Join Team Headway in the 2022 London Marathon to help us continue improving life after brain injury.