Celebrating 10 years of NETA

On Tuesday I went along to The Mansion House in Newcastle for afternoon tea to celebrate the North East Trust for Aphasia’s 10^th Anniversary. It was a great afternoon and I met some lovely people.  I was wearing my Giving Voice badge and was able to have a few Giving Voice related conversations with the people sat at the same table as me.

For those of you who don’t know, the North East Trust for Aphasia (NETA) is an independent registered charity which is self funded. Aphasia often arises after stroke or other brain trauma and it means difficulties with communication (speaking, understanding, reading, writing). Aphasia has a sudden and profound effect on the person, their family and friends. It impacts on the individual’s confidence, personal relationships, employment and social life.

NETA supports people who have Aphasia in the North East, and their families as well as raising awareness of Aphasia.

Tuesday afternoon was lovely, it was great to meet lots of people who benefit directly from NETA as well as listening to the inspiring speeches from, Janet Speight (chair of NETA), Professor David Howard and the Lord Mayor of Newcastle.

In Janet’s speech she mentioned how happy everyone always is when attending NETA. She said that you might expect the people there to be sad but everyone is always happy. I was really inspired by the sheer determination of the individuals who have aphasia and how they don’t let this stop them communicating to the best of their ability.

It was also lovely to hear so many people talk about how much NETA, and Speech and Language Therapy has helped them and their families since their stroke.

NETA is a brilliant charity and I was delighted I could be part of the 10 year celebration. Keep up the great work NETA and here’s to the next 10 years! Why not go and check out NETA’s lovely new website?! http://www.neta.org.uk  

Speech and Language Therapy Transforms Lives

Everybody Loves Pens

I was delighted to see that Ian Lavery, MP retweeted my blog and this also led to some other people retweeting it too.  I’m happy to see that my blog is steadily making its ways towards 6000 page views! It means a lot that people are interested in reading it.

Last Monday I went to see Patrick Monahan (Winner of ITV1's 'Show Me The Funny') and Lost Voice Guy at Hoochie Coochie in Newcastle. I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to speak to both of them on the night. It was nice to catch up with Lost Voice Guy and I even got a photo with him! It was good to hear about all the gigs he’s been doing and how surreal he is still finding it all. He had some new material on the night and the audience loved him!

Me with Lost Voice Guy!

There were some other great comedians on the night too: Simon Donald (from The Viz), Abi Roberts and Ben Messenger.

It was also great to meet Patrick Monahan and I took the opportunity to thank him for retweeting my blog. He said it was his pleasure and I got a hug (sadly I wasn’t quick enough for a photo opportunity!) I gave him a Giving Voice pen with which he seemed delighted! It appears that Everybody Loves Pens! Patrick’s stand up was really good and I tweeted him to tell him this. I was delighted that he replied to my tweet and I look forward to seeing him again in the future.

Patrick Monahan on stage

Speech and Language Therapy Transforms Lives

MP's and a Miner's Picnic!

This weekend was the 145th Northumberland's Miner’s Picnic, with events being held at various places over the last few days. On Friday I went along to a lecture evening at Ashington Football club as Ian Lavery, MP for Wansbeck was one of the guest speakers present. I went along wearing my Giving Voice badge to spread the word a little bit further.

There were four speakers in total, 3 of which are current MPs (Ian Mearns, Gateshead, Graham Morris, Easington and Wansbeck's Ian Lavery) and former Wansbeck, MP Denis Murphy. All the speakers were passionate and proud to represent their individual constituencies. They talked about a number of issues including the NHS and the Health and Social Care Bill.

After the speeches, I spoke to Ian Lavery to remind him of the Giving Voice campaign and to give him a new Giving Voice pen. He was delighted with this as he informed me that his previous one had run out of ink! Graham Morris  also received a Giving Voice pen and he seemed equally enthused. I took the opportunity to get another photo with Ian Lavery and to explain that Giving Voice is continuing throughout this year. He once again expressed his support for the profession and says he will do whatever he can to support the campaign this year.

He has recently joined Twitter and I took the opportunity to ask him if he would tweet about Giving Voice, with which he happily agreed. It was a pleasure to meet him again and I am pleased he likes his pen!

On Saturday I went along to the Miner's picnic event at Woodhorn Colliery Museum, where my friend and I were both wearing a Giving Voice badge. 

If your local MP is going to be talking at a local event, why not go along and mention Giving Voice.

Speech and Language Therapy Transforms Lives!!

Balloons, Cake and Glorious Sunshine!

What a glorious day it was yesterday! The sun shone and there wasn’t a cloud in the sky. The beautiful weather brought lots of people outdoors to Saltwell Park, Gateshead. The Family Fun day and walk was organised by the Stroke Association and I spoke to someone prior to the event to ask for permission to hand out Giving Voice leaflets. I was delighted when they said that was fine! There was a lot of entertainment in the park, including Zumba, live music, tombola, raffle, dancing, face painting and cake!

We set up our table on a nice spot on the grass ready to hand out leaflets and balloons. We were set up between the face painting stand and the cake stall, which turned out to be really good as it was a great opportunity to give children balloons while they were waiting to have their face painted. Each child we gave a balloon too, we gave a leaflet to the parents and told them a little bit about Speech and Language Therapy and the Giving Voice campaign. Most people were quite interested and the balloons went down well with the children.

I engaged a few people in particularly interesting conversations about their experiences of speech and language therapy, as well as talking to some Stroke Association volunteers about Giving Voice. One lady I spoke to said all three of her children have had speech and language therapy at some point, most recently her youngest child, for feeding. She said she was surprised to find out that it would be a speech and language therapist who would help her son with feeding, but that he is now able to eat lumpy foods.

 A few people wrote their thoughts about speech and language therapy/what communication means to them on a nice pink speech bubble. Here are some of them:

"Communication is a blessing, not a right of passage. As someone who is dyspraxic I still find communicating a challenge. When I communicate successfully I get to learn about the world and others around me get a better understanding of who I am and what it's like to be me"

“Communication is vital in all parts of life for the needs of the person in question”

“Communication...gives the power to be understood...makes relationships easier...helps to make relating to the world and your environment easier.”

"Speech and Language Therapy is really good and it has really helped my two little girls talk and tell me what they want...it has also helped my son eat lumpy foods! Thanks to everyone that trains to be a therapist great work!"

We gave out approximately 65 leaflets, 5 badges, 20 stickers and 60 balloons. It was a lovely day and it was nice to Give Voice out in the sunshine. I was wearing my Giving Voice t-shirt and a badge, and my parents were wearing a Giving Voice badge each too!

I only found out about this event fairly last minute but it was definitely worth making the phone call to ask if we could go along.  There were hundreds of people at the event, and although I wasn’t able to speak everyone individually, it was worth it for the people we did speak to. We also had the Giving Voice pop up banner which lots of people were reading as they walked past – spreading the message that little bit further that ‘Speech and Language Therapy Transforms Lives’.  

I read an Old Chinese Proverb recently ‘The man who moved a mountain is the one who started taking away the small stones’ – I think this applies to campaigning, and Giving Voice – we might not achieve big things over night but every small thing we do and each person we influence is one person more who knows about the great work Speech and Language Therapists do!

Look out for local events in your area over the summer and see if you can go along and Give Voice!

5000 and beyond...

I’m very excited that my blog has exceeded 5000 pages views! It’s great that lots of people are reading and sharing it, to spread the message that Speech and Language Therapy Transforms Lives. Hopefully won’t be too long before it reaches 6000.

I was really excited to get my blog re-tweeted by Patrick Monahan (7701 followers)and Lost Voice Guy (1166 followers) help me reach 5000 views! Thank you to everyone else who shared it too! J

The Stroke Association are having a family fun day at Saltwell Park, Gateshead tomorrow ( Saturday 26^th May, 10-2pm) and I got permission yesterday to go along and hand out Giving Voice leaflets. If you are in the area why not come along and say hello? Hopefully the weather will be as nice as it is today! I’ll blog again after the event J

Here’s a link to their website if you want to have a look at the event! http://www.stroke.org.uk/event/step-out-saltwell-park-gateshead

Speech and Language Therapy Transforms Lives!

Grabbing Opportunities...

I was hoping to reach 5000 page views before my birthday this month, but as that was earlier in the week I wasn’t successful with this. Almost at 5000 now though so hopefully won’t be too long before I get there! I’m still thrilled that so many people seem to be reading my blog!

On Friday I went into Newcastle to go to the Northern Research Special Interest Group (SIG). I got the metro in, and was of course, wearing my Giving Voice badge. When I arrived at the SIG a fellow speech and language therapist said she noticed my badge on the metro. I’m glad it’s so noticeable and will continue to wear it in the hope that it will lead to more Giving Voice/Speech and Language Therapy conversations in the future.

As I was getting off the metro I spotted Lost Voice Guy so I stopped by and said hello. It was nice that he recognised me and I am pleased I stopped for a chat. I’m looking forward to seeing him perform again on June 11th, when he is supporting Patrick Monahan (winner of 'Show me the Funny') at Hoochie Coochie in Newcastle! :-)  

Check out their websites http://www.lostvoiceguy.com/   http://www.patrickmonahan.co.uk/

The Research SIG was really interesting and it made me even more enthusiastic about the profession. I am currently working as a research assistant with Newcastle University and the SIG made me more excited about this current post.

I have been in touch with the Stroke Association about a couple of events they are having in the next few months. There’s a fun day at Saltwell Park in Gateshead next weekend and I am hoping to be able to go along with some leaflets. I spoke to someone last week and they said they will get in touch with me tomorrow, so hopefully it will be positive news. I heard about the event from a fax that my mam received at work and thought it would be a good opportunity to Give Voice. It’s worth keeping your eye out for such things as you never know what opportunities could be waiting to be used!

Hopefully I’ll have something else to report soon – please keep sharing my blog as Speech and Language Therapy Transforms Lives!

Pinkjules meets Lost Voice Guy

After talking to a colleague last week and learning that Lost Voice Guy was due to perform in Newcastle on Thursday night, I knew I had to go! Having read and heard a lot about him I was looking forward to seeing him on stage!

Here’s a little introduction, for those of you that have not heard of Lost Voice Guy (where have you been?!) Lee Ridley, aka Lost Voice Guy, is “(probably) the first stand up comedian to use a communication aid”. Lee has Cerebral Palsy and uses an aid for his communication.

I tweeted Lost Voice Guy on Thursday afternoon ahead of the gig on Thursday night and was rather excited when he replied telling me to enjoy my night and come and say hi if I wanted.

Lost Voice Guy was not the headline act, but he was the reason we went along to the Jazz Cafe on Thursday night. I was looking forward to meeting Lost Voice Guy and judging by the amount of attention he was getting he was certainly popular! Every time I thought I’d go and say hi, he was surrounded by people talking to him (particularly after his performance!) I did manage to get to speak to him at the end of the night though and was delighted he recognised me from my tweet! (I was wearing my Giving Voice badge at the gig, and I have a Giving Voice twibbon on my twitter pic, so maybe this was how he recognised me).

I had a great night and enjoyed seeing Lost Voice Guy perform with his iPad. It’s lovely to see how well he is doing and it’s great that he is also raising awareness of the use of communication aids.  I think Lost Voice Guy has a lot of courage to get up and perform on stage as he does (I know from personal experience how nerve wracking it is to communicate in front of an audience) – he does it extremely well and the audience loved him!

I’ve spent a lot of the weekend telling people that I saw Lost Voice Guy perform last week, and I am pleased at how many people have already heard of him. It has also led to some interesting conversations about communication, and comedy in general.

If you haven’t already visited his website (http://lostvoiceguy.com) I’d highly recommend it! Why not go and take a look at his brilliant blog and check out the dates for his upcoming gigs! J

Lost Voice Guy on stage at Jazz Cafe, Newcastle, 3rd May 2012