Fun for all!

I can’t believe that I’ve almost let a month go past without updating this blog! I’ve been quite busy training for the Great North Run (check out my progress here)!  June is not quite over yet though so just time for a quick update!

The entertainment evening I organised at Ashington Football Club on Saturday 7^th June was a huge success! It aimed to raise money for the North East Trust for Aphasia and to raise awareness of Giving Voice and The International Communication Project 2014. Weeks of planning and preparation were all worthwhile as it was a brilliant night!

Steffen Peddie (from BBC sitcom Hebburn) did a brilliant job of hosting the night which starred hilarious Comedian Lost Voice Guy. Steffen ensured the night ran smoothly and kept the audience entertained from start to finish.

Early in the night I spoke about Giving Voice and ICP 2014. Following my brief speech I introduced Janet Speight, Chair of NETA who spoke about the charity and what it is like to live with Aphasia.

Liz Panton, then performed her Giving Voice song on the Ukulele and encouraged audience participation. She also told of her own recent experiences of having mild Aphasia.

We had a successful auction, brilliantly led by Steffen, two entertaining games of ‘Head ands Tail’ and a race to the raffle prizes! We also had live music from Charlotte and Jordan, who were absolutely brilliant!

The whole evening was a huge success and everyone enjoyed it. We raised more than £750. A great night was enjoyed by everyone! The Thursday after the event I went to NETA and presented them with a cheque for £1000 (the money from the event plus some other fundraising my family have been doing).

Thank you to everyone who attended and helped out on the night. Thanks also to the Undefined Group for doing an excellent job of the lighting and sound!

Fabulous Fireworks

Remember remember 5th November...

On bonfire night this year I was on a river cruise on the Tyne with my family. It was a fundraising event hosted by North East Trust for Aphasia (NETA) to raise money to support their work. As you may know, NETA supports individuals (and their families) with Aphasia - communication difficulties following a stroke, or other brain injury.

I met my family in Newcastle straight after work and we headed to the boat which was waiting for everyone to board at the Quayside. Once on the boat we ordered some drinks (a nice hot cup of tea as it was freezing outside!) and waited for our cruise to begin.

I was wearing a black and pink dress (accessorised with a Giving Voice badge!) and I put Giving Voice leaflets on all of the tables. I provided my family with Giving badges too, which they all happily agreed to wear (with only a little reluctance from one of my teenage nephews!)

I volunteered to sell the raffle tickets so I had the opportunity to speak to everyone on the boat. It was nice to catch up with some of the members and they were interested to hear about how my new job is going :-)

The evening was lovely, with fireworks lighting the sky. Many people stood upstairs on the deck, wrapped up warm,  to enjoy the view. My nephew and niece both had a turn at driving the boat which made their night!

It was lovely to spend some time with my family and help a fantastic charity raise some extra funds. I enjoyed helping to sell the raffle tickets and it was a good opportunity to hand out Giving Voice leaflets to remind everyone about it. I saw people looking at them and some took them home.

An enjoyable evening raising money and awareness of Aphasia and I look forward to the next time I can take part in one of their events. My family and I have been fundraising over the last few months and I presented NETA with a cheque for £200 on the night. Together with the fantastic fundraising efforts of my sister and brother-in-law for the Great North Run, and our afternoon tea event in September, I am delighted to say that we've raised more than £1000 for NETA this year! Thank you to everyone who has helped us to support this fantastic cause!

Me presenting the cheque to Janet Speight, Chair of NETA 

Speech and Language Therapy Transforms Lives!

Oranges and Jelly Babies!

A week today since the thousands of fantastic people completed the Great North Run 2013. I was on the side lines at the 11 mile mark cheering on the inspirational runners with a smiling face, oranges and jelly babies!

My sister lives in South Shields so we set up near her house. My dad helped us set the gazebo up (in an attempt to shelter from the rain!). We then set up the table and my mam started cutting up the oranges. My nephews and nieces helped us give out the jelly babies (and also helped hold the poles of the gazebo to stop it blowing away as it was so windy!)

In front of the gazebo we had our board of Giving Voice posters and my mam, me and niece were wearing our Giving Voice t-shirts.

It was such a brilliant day (even the weather didn't spoil it too much!) and the runners were so grateful that we had sweet treats to cheer them on! Someone told us that Mel C thanked the little girl at 11miles for the jelly baby and we think that was very likely to be my niece, Toni!

We stayed out almost until the last runners went past and I enjoyed seeing my sister, brother-in-law and friend Rachael running past!

In fact the whole day was so inspirational that I have decided I am going to run next year! I've already emailed NETA to request information about joining their team next year and have been out for a couple of walk/jogs! I have also started a running blog to share my journey and keep me motivated! Check out this blog to read more about why NETA inspired me to run :-)

I saw lots of people reading our poster (Speech and Language Therapy Transforms Lives) so hopefully our important message was received by lots more people :-)

My sister and brother-in-law have raised an amazing £500 for the North East Trust for Aphasia!!

Thanks to everyone who helped us on the day: mam, dad, Mo, Charlotte, Toni, Darius, Cerina and Dom!

Oranges and Jelly Babies at #GNR

One week today until the Great North Run!!

For the last two years my family, friends and I have been on the side lines of the Great North Run cheering on the runners whilst handing out Jelly Babies. We also wear Giving Voice t-shirts to help raise a little more awareness of the campaign.

My sister and brother-in-law are both running this year (my sisters first time) so I am looking forward to cheering them on. We will be set up on the grass on the left side of the road, just before the 11 mile mark (not far from where my sister lives). My friend Rachael is also running for the first time so I am excited to cheer on the people I know as well as the thousands of people that I don’t!

We will be handing out oranges and jelly babies to the runners to help raise their spirits as they enter the final stretch of the run. The runners, the past two years, seem to really appreciate this and it is nice to be able to help them along! If you are running or know anyone who is, please do share this blog so they know to look out for us!

Our collection of Jelly Babies!

My sister and brother-in-law are both running for the North East Trust for Aphasia – a charity which helps people with communication difficulties following a stroke or other brain injury.  I have had the pleasure of working at NETA since April and the members are truly inspirational. They all benefit greatly from the work of NETA and I am delighted that Joanne and Craig are running to support this very worthy cause. If you can help support NETA, please sponsor Joanne and Craig here (however small, as every penny counts!)

If you are watching the GNR on TV look out for our Giving Voice Banner and our t-shirts when the cameras film the elite runners going past! I can’t wait to be part of the experience of the Great North Run 2013 and wish every one taking part lots of luck. Every runner is a hero in my eyes and I look forward to cheering them on with jelly babies and a smile!

I am delighted my blog has reached more than 20,000 page views – thank you to everyone who reads it. Please do share it with your family and friends to help continue spreading the message that Speech and Language Therapy Transforms Lives!

Afternoon Tea

On Sunday, I hosted an Afternoon Tea in aid of the North East Trust for Aphasia (NETA) at Crossroads Coffee shop in Ashington.

I wanted to use this opportunity to raise awareness of Giving Voice and the North East Trust for Aphasia, as well as gaining some additional funds to support the work of NETA.

The afternoon was a huge success. We sold 26 tickets and raised a total of £185. We also had a raffle and tombola to raise additional funds on the day. Each table had a quiz sheet which everyone was encouraged to take part in. Almost all of the answers were in the Giving Voice and NETA leaflets to encourage people to read them and hopefully learn something new! The tie break question asked each team to write what communication means to them inside a speech bubble. The winning bubble was “Communication helps people solve problems.”

Tombola

Afternoon tea was delicious, with a variety of sandwiches, scones and cakes, all freshly made especially for the event! Everyone thought the food was beautiful and well worth the £5 for the cost of the ticket. We put a candle into a cupcake and surprised my mam with a beautiful version of "Happy Birthday!" (well we all sang anyway!) to celebrate her birthday the previous day! 

Crossroads Coffee Shop was a lovely location and the volunteers were brilliant. They prepared all the food from fresh, themselves. Thank you to everyone who helped out and to everyone who attended!

Cakes and prizes!

This event was definitely worthwhile and I look forward to planning something similar in the future. If you know any local cafe's that support charities why not see if you can arrange something similar where you are?!

Speech and Language Therapy Transforms Lives

Meeting a Dragon? I'm in!

Last night I went out in Newcastle with my friends. I only decided yesterday afternoon that I would be going out and I am so glad that I did!!

As it was raining we decided to head to The Gate as its all indoors and this would minimise the amount of time we would get wet! When we arrived at Bannatyne my friend informed us that Duncan Bannatyne himself had just been in! We decided to hang around there a while longer in case he came back, and to our delight he did. We asked him for a photo, to which he happily agreed! About 5 minutes later we decided to go and see him again to get some more photos and to have a chat with him. He was more than happy to chat to us and I gave him a Giving Voice pen and told him that Speech and Language Therapy Transforms Lives. I was delighted that he put the pen in his pocket!

About an hour later I was ordering a drink in another bar and found myself standing next to Duncan again. He said hello and I took the opportunity to raise some more awareness of SLT.

Me: “Did you know that 2.5 people in the UK have speech, language or communication needs?”

Duncan: “I did know that. How do you know?”

I told him that I am a speech and language therapist and he told me about his involvement with Operation Smile UK and his recent trip to Mexico! Click here to find out more!

It was a pleasure to meet him and to have the opportunity to engage in a speech and language therapy related conversation – especially as it was totally unexpected! I always carry a Giving Voice pen with me (even on a night out!) as you never know who you might bump into to spread the message one person further that Speech and Language Therapy Transforms Lives. Wouldn’t it be great if we see him use his new Giving Voice pen on the next series of Dragons Den?! (haha)

Me and Duncan just before I gave him the pen :)

On another note, just one week to go until afternoon tea! I am looking forward to raising awareness of Giving Voice and some much needed funds for the North East Trust for Aphasia, supporting people with language and communication difficulties following a stroke or other brain injury. I emailed the News Post Leader last week about the event and was delighted to see a short piece printed in this week’s edition! Contact me if would like a ticket :-)

News Post Leader

All in all a very exciting couple of days!  

Speech and Language Therapy Transforms Lives

A day out at #edfringe

Welcome to my 80th blog post! I didn't think I'd still be blogging now, when I started this two years ago and I am delighted that it has exceeded 19,000 views! Thanks to everyone who reads and shares it to help us spread the word that Speech and Language Therapy Transforms Lives!

Last week my friend and I had an unplanned day off together so the night before when we were deciding what we might like to do, we randomly booked train tickets to Edinburgh so we could check out The Fringe – including a free afternoon show with Lost Voice Guy and Emily Wood.

We were lucky that the weather in Edinburgh was fabulous all day long and this was a great venue for a girly day out! When we arrived in Edinburgh we spent some time strolling the streets (wearing our Giving Voice badges and me with my Giving Voice bag!) exploring the street entertainment. We decided to go to a free show before lunch which was good. After lunch we wandered round some more then began to look for the venue where Lost Voice Guy was doing his gig. Anyone that knows me (and indeed my friend Rachael) will know that our sense of direction is not our strongest point! However, we managed to use the map and find the venue without too much difficulty (only a few wrong turns, and using the longest way possible to get there – but still! We did find it!)

We sat in the bar with a drink and while we were waiting we saw Lee Ridley arrive (Lost Voice Guy). We had a brief chat with him and it was great to hear how well his gigs are going at The Fringe this year.

The gig ‘Are you a technophile?’ - about growing up and living in an era of modern technology, was great! Lost Voice Guy was as funny as ever and I heard some of his jokes that I haven’t heard before J I would have loved to see his evening show too - Voice of Choice - but unfortunately we only planned to go for the day. After the gig we spoke to him again and got some photos too. If you've never seen Lost Voice Guy before and you are going to be at The Fringe this month – then definitely check him out!!

Lee Ridley and me

Rachael and Lee

Emily Wood

Hopefully people noticed our Giving Voice bag/badges as were wandering the streets of Edinburgh enabling us to spread the message a little bit further.

On another note, we are still buying lots of Jelly Babies for the Great North Run (we’ll be handing them out wearing Giving Voice t-shirts) just before the 11 mile mark. My sister and brother-in-law are both running for NETA (and both got their numbers this morning!). If you can help them to support people in the North East with Aphasia (communication difficulties following stroke and other brain injury) then please do so here! I’m really excited to be going along to support this fantastic event again this year!

Only two weeks on Sunday until afternoon tea at Crossroads CoffeeShop, Ashington. Contact me for tickets if you’d like to attend and are in the area! Tickets are selling quite fast so let me know asap if you want to attend this event. I did invite Wansbeck MP, Ian Lavery, but unfortunately he is busy with other constituent business on the day.

Speech and Language Therapy Transforms Lives

Summer excitement!

It’s two years this month since I started my blog  (and it doesn't seem like two minutes!) so I thought I’d update it again before the end of the month.

This week I had a productive meeting about arranging an afternoon tea at Crossroads Café, Ashington to raise awareness of Giving Voice, Speech and Language Therapy and Aphasia whilst raising some funds for the North East Trust for Aphasia (NETA). Anyone who knows me knows how much I love tea so this is a very exciting event for me, for a very worthy cause. Tickets have already started selling for what is sure to be a lovely afternoon! For more information about this event click HERE. We will have a little quiz on the tables to get people engaging in the information as well as having a little fun and we are also going to hold a tombola to raise some extra funds.

If you know anyone who owns or runs a café could you organise something similar to raise awareness of communication and swallowing difficulties and the value of speech and language therapy. Perhaps you could raise funds for a local charity which supports people with communication or swallowing needs. If you’d like any further information about how to organize an event like this, please do not hesitate to get in touch.

Earlier this month I attended the second of the online ‘GIG’ meeting – the Giving Voice Innovation Group were full of enthusiasm for the campaign. If you haven’t ‘met’ the group yet – take a look at this page on the Giving Voice website and get in touch with your local member to see what’s going on in your area! Also, don’t forget there’s still time to enter a photo into the Lights Camera Campaign competition – click here for further details – why not do a Giving Voice activity and submit a photo from the event?!

Last month I attended the North East Speech and Language Therapy Research Symposium, where I learnt lots of interesting information about research being carried out in the North East. Some of the current Newcastle Students held a Giving Voice stand with leaflets and pens etc and I spoke to them about the interest people had in the stand. They commented that lots of people thought the ‘Seven Signs’ leaflets were fantastic and took them to hand to schools or GPs. I think distributing these leaflets to GPs is a great idea so I am going to meet with SLTs in Northumberland to discuss how we might be able to do this. If you have picked up a ‘Seven Signs’ leaflet at any Giving Voice events, why not pass it onto someone who would benefit from the information.

Thank you to SLT student, Dominique Hill, for the Giving Voice photos from the NE SLT research Symposium

It’s only 50 days until the Great North Run (so social media informs me – I haven’t counted the days personally!) – we have quite a collection of jelly babies now to hand out to the runners on the day (whilst wearing Giving Voice t-shirts). My sister and brother-in-law are running for NETA so I will be looking out for them (and other people I know that are running) on the day. If you are able to support the fantastic work of NETA please sponsor my sister and brother-in-law here. I’m looking forward to going along and supporting the event – it’s always a fantastic atmosphere!

Our Jelly Babies Collection so far!

Well, I’m off to enjoy some sunshine now – hope you can too! (Before you do, why not share my blog to help spread the word that Speech and Language Therapy Transforms Lives!)

From April to July - where did the time go??

It has been a while since I last updated my blog (April) so I thought it was about time I gave it some attention. Life has been quite busy recently and although I haven't had time to blog, I have still been Giving Voice, so here's a little update :-)

A few weeks ago I went along to an event in Gosforth which aimed to raise funds for the North East Trust for Aphasia (NETA). For those of you that don't know, NETA is a charity which is based at Newcastle University and supports people with Aphasia (communication difficulties following a stroke or other brain injury). It also aims to raise awareness of the impact Aphasia has on the lives of individuals and their family and friends. If you would like more information about NETA visit their website here

The donkey derby was a cinema race night allowing people to place bets on horses before watching the race on screen. I won a prize in the raffle but sadly none of my horses were winners! Before the event I sold horses for one race to my family (owner of the winning horse won a prize) and we named this race Giving Voice Gallop!

For those of you that do not know, NETA won a Giving Voice award last year for local partnership of the year, so they brought their lovely award along to display (for more information about NETAs own celebration of this award, see July Bulletin page 9). I also made a quick speech on the night to remind people about Giving Voice and to inform anybody that hadn't already heard of it. We also put leaflets and pens on the tables and encouraged people to take these away and pass them on. New patron of NETA, Lord Shipley, attended on the night and made a short speech. An enjoyable night was had by all and we raised money for NETA in the process!

On the subject of NETA, my sister and brother-in-law are both running the Great North Run for them  this year and like the previous two years I will be on the sidelines sporting my Giving Voice t-shirt and handing out jelly babies to the runners. To find out about how this went last year click here. We bought our first box of jelly babies last week! To sponsor Joanne and Craig and help them support NETA you can visit their just giving page here

Thanks for reading, hopefully it won't be so long before I update this again!

Speech and Language Therapy Transforms Lives!

#GivingVoiceUK

NETA Giving Voice Awards Celebration

As you are probably aware, myself and NETA (North East Trust for Aphasia) were unable to make it to the Giving Voice awards ceremony back in November due to cancelled trains. L Still wanting to celebrate our success, we decided to hold our very own Giving Voice awards in Newcastle.

We began planning this event at the beginning of the year and it was held at Newcastle University last Thursday, 7^th March. Some of the members of the North East Trust for Aphasia have been attending a choir at The Sage, Gateshead and the Giving Voice celebration was an opportunity for them to perform together for an audience.

Due to popular demand for tickets to attend this celebration event, the programme was run across two rooms (as one room wasn’t big enough!) to ensure everyone who wanted to could attend. The programme of events included an introduction from Janet Speight (chair of NETA), a live performance from the NETA choir, live flute playing, a talk from me about Giving Voice and some videos showing what NETA does. Following the exciting programme, tea, coffee and cake were served across both rooms with opportunity for everyone to mingle and have a chat.

The choir were brilliant and the whole afternoon was wonderful. I got a little nervous before I arrived, knowing that I needed to make my (10 minute) speech twice, but once there, my nerves began to turn to excitement.

Both times my speech followed the welcome speech from Janet Speight and it was my absolute pleasure to talk about Giving Voice and why I nominated NETA for their well deserved award. Talking in front of an audience always make me more aware of my own communication, and I am always reminded that it is something I frequently take for granted. Being surrounded by people who have aphasia, yet still communicate to the best of their ability was truly inspirational. Janet talked about how her Speech and Language Therapist helped her to find her voice again after her stroke, and acknowledged that this is a similar story for many of the NETA members. The whole afternoon made me so proud of the SLT profession and there were a couple of occasions I found myself with teary eyes, as I was so honoured to be part of such a wonderful celebration.

Following my talk about Giving Voice (which seemed to go down quite well with both audiences), we moved onto the presentation of awards. I was absolutely delighted that NETA asked me to present them with their Giving Voice award. I presented the award to Janet on behalf of NETA, and made a little speech about how delighted I am that they won, and how deserved the award is. Janet then made an acceptance speech, in which she said she looks forward to working with Giving Voice again in the future. Dr Rose Hilton then presented my award and made a very kind speech about me, which left me speechless (something which rarely happens to me!)  I then thanked NETA for allowing me the great privilege of presenting their award and allowing me to be part of their celebration.

Janet Speight and I with our awards, Howden Room, Newcastle University

Thursday afternoon was truly inspirational and it was wonderful seeing so many NETA members and their families and friends able to attend the event. It was also lovely to have my parents, my older sister and my boyfriend there to celebrate with me.

I nominated NETA for the Giving Voice award as they have been actively involved in the campaign and they are a brilliant example of how valuable speech and language therapy is to people living with aphasia. I look forward to Giving Voice with them again in the future. Check out their website for more information www.neta.org.uk

Well done to everyone who organised this event and thank you to everyone who attended and supported it! Speech and Language Therapy Transforms Lives!

A Friday Phonecall...

I just got quite excited when my phone rang and I saw it said ‘Ian Lavery’s office’ knowing that it would be regarding the invitation to the NETA and Giving Voice event.

Unfortunately as Ian Lavery doesn’t get back to constituency until a Thursday evening he is unable to attend the event. I thought this would probably be the case but I am still pleased to have heard from them. Ian has read the letter and his secretary says if there is anything else he can do or if I need him for anything else just to get in touch again.

If you didn’t see my previous blog, you may not know that I wrote to my MP to invite him to a celebration event to celebrate NETAs award win. I also took the opportunity to remind him of Giving Voice and the importance of SLT and thank him for his previous support.

I am delighted that I still have a developing working relationship with my MP and look forward to keeping him up to date with Giving Voice in the future.

If your MP doesn’t already know about Giving Voice why not write to them and spread the message that

Speech and Language Therapy Transforms Lives

Sunny Days and Happy Things...

Loving the sunshine today! The winter blues are slowly disappearing as I notice the nights beginning to slowly get lighter, payday draws steadily closer and the sun is shining brightly through my window... The time between Christmas and the end of January always seems so long but there’s been a few exciting things happened this month so I thought I’d sit down and share them with you.

Firstly, I am extremely excited that my train tickets are booked for the Giving Voice Working Group residential next month! I remain positive that the train service will serve me well and that the weather person in the sky stays happy to allow easy travelling for me and my fellow working group colleagues. So far this year, my Giving Voice involvement has had a slightly slower momemtum than usual, so I am super excited about getting my teeth properly stuck back into campaigning and meeting fellow Giving Voice enthusiasts at the training next month. I look forward to sharing my Giving Voice adventure with you all.

Secondly, as we were unable to make it to London for the Giving Voice awards we are holding our own little celebration in Newcastle. I’ve been helping the North East Trust for Aphasia  (NETA) organise a celebration which is to be held in March. As part of this event I have been asked to talk for 10 minutes about my involvement in Giving Voice and why I nominated NETA. I have written to my MP to invite him along to the event (and of course took the opportunity to thank him for his previous support and remind him of how brilliant SLTs are!) I’m really looking forward to being part of this celebration and will update you after the event! :-)

 

Speech and Language Therapy Transforms Lives!

(Belated) Happy New Year!

Where does the time go? I had every intention of blogging before the New Year yet here we are two weeks into January!

I can hardly believe that its two years ago this month that I first got involved in Giving Voice. I couldn’t have imagined where this journey would take me, but so far I have enjoyed every minute!

This time last year my blog had only just exceeded 2000 page views (in 5 months) and now it has exceeded 15,000 views. Words cannot describe how amazing this is and I am extremely grateful that people are interested in reading more about Speech and Language Therapy – spreading the message one person at a time. I've tweeted lots of people my blog in recent months and have been delighted that a number of celebrities have retweeted it to their followers. (use the #givingvoiceuk hashtag to raise awareness of SLT or get involved in the #bigSLTtalk every Wednesday!)

I am delighted and overwhelmed that I won the Newly Qualified Practitioner Award at the 2012 Giving Voice awards. To have my campaigning recognised is truly wonderful. Last year was brilliant, from handing out leaflets at The Kings Speech, Theatre Royal Newcastle, giving out leaflets and balloons at Saltwell park to cheering on the runners at the GNR with jelly babies, I tried to engage a range of people in the campaign.

The highlight of my campaigning year, though, was meeting Lost Voice Guy and then have him headline a Giving Voice entertainment evening to fundraise for the North East Trust for Aphasia. I was absolutely delighted that my nominations of both led to them winning Giving Voice awards of their own (and am still disappointed we were unable to make it to the ceremony due to weather and trains!) For more information about the extremely talented Lost Voice Guy (Lee Ridley) check out his website. If you’d like to learn more about the amazing work of NETA click here.

I am looking forward to the year ahead and seeing where Giving Voice will go. I am excited to be involved in the Giving Voice working group and looking forward to the residential trip next month. Don’t forget if you are a member of RCSLT and want to get involved contact emma.barnes@rcslt.org. Let’s make this  the year everyone hears that Speech and Language Therapy Transforms Lives.

Troublesome trains & helpful hashtags!

One week today since the RCSLT Honours and Giving Voice awards. I’d been looking forward to the day for over a month (since I received the phonecall to say I had won the Giving Voice ‘Newly Qualified Practitioner’ Award) so I thought I’d take this opportunity to write about my day…

My alarm was set for 5am and I awoke with excitement (not usually being a morning person, I found it surprisingly easy to pull myself out of bed). I had my breakfast and a cup of tea before getting ready for the exciting day ahead. I’d been shopping for a new dress the weekend before so I couldn’t wait to wear it! My parents were up and about early too as my dad was my guest and my mam our taxi to the train station!

I had been following the weather and train updates on Monday and was expecting that we might be delayed a little so was glad we had booked such an early train (6.55am). Also, I had arranged to go the awards half an hour early to talk about my experiences of the campaign to be recorded for the RCSLT website.

 Sitting in the train station with our cups of tea, I noticed the display board said our train was delayed, so I was excited and pleasantly surprised when it turned up on time. In just over 3 hours’ time I would be in the capital city meeting lots of other speech and language therapists!

We got on board and found our seats, placing our bags on the shelf overhead. Settled in our seats with a half-finished cup of tea, I told my dad how excited I was for the day ahead.

That’s when things began to go wrong… an announcement came over the tannoy and said that there were delays further along the track so we had to wait until this was sorted. They couldn’t specify how long it would be so we just had to sit it out. An hour after our train was due to leave I saw Lee Ridley (Lost Voice Guy – winner of Celebrity Ambassador of the Year) with his mam, and two representatives from the North East Trust for Aphasia  (winners of Giving Voice Partnership award), standing on the platform (for the 7.55am train). I was pleased to see them and got off the train to tell them what the latest announcement had said, (travel on Wednesday if possible, as severe delays). They spoke to the platform guard who said they could get onto our train with their tickets so we all sat together, waiting for our journey to commence.

At 8.10am another announcement came over the tannoy and it wasn’t looking hopeful to be able to get there on time. I rang my mam to see if she could look on the internet for a flight. She rang back 5 minutes later to say that she couldn’t see online if there were seats available on the flights so we would need to go to the airport and speak to someone. The only flight times were 9.20am (which was already boarding) and 12.15pm (too late), so neither of them were particularly useful anyway.

A further announcement recommended travelling on a different day if at all possible, which led to people around us leaving. The people next to us said they would travel next week as they were going to go Christmas shopping, and we engaged in a short conversation. I told them that I couldn’t travel a different day as I was going to an awards ceremony in London at noon. They congratulated me on my award win and asked what it was for, so I took the opportunity to tell them about the Giving Voice campaign.

A final announcement told us that the service was terminating here and realising that there was no chance of getting to London on time (if at all), we departed the train and headed home with a heavy heart.

By this time my mam was at work, so my dad and I decided to get a taxi home. The taxi driver was friendly and we engaged in conversation, again taking the opportunity to talk about Giving Voice.

Once at home, we made (another!) cup of tea and I got changed out of my new dress. Once it was 12pm I began following the event on twitter from the #rcsltawards hashtag. This was bittersweet as I knew I should have been there but I still enjoyed the updates (thank you to everyone who used the hashtag on the day!)

The full list of winners can be found here  - congratulations everyone!

I was happy to hear that they were still able to show my winning video so, in effect, I was at the award ceremony after all! J It sounds like it was a fantastic event and it looks like everyone enjoyed the day J

On a more positive note, I was able to celebrate my award win with my ever supportive family on Saturday night. I look forward to the arrival of my award and am truly delighted to have my campaigning efforts recognised.

All in all it was a rather disappointing day for those of us not able to attend, however I was still able to spread the word about the campaign (perhaps more so than if I’d actually been at the event) so all was not lost!

 Speech and Language Therapy Transforms Lives

My supportive family

Aphasiafest

On Saturday evening I went along to Aphasiafest at The Cluny 2, Newcastle  to raise awareness of Giving Voice. Aphasiafest was a night’s entertainment to raise money for the North East Trust for Aphasia (NETA).

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. To find out more visit www.neta.org.uk

We set off in plenty time as I’ve never been to the venue before and I am known for my poor sense of direction! I had the satnav and found the venue with no problems (well, ok! That was a tiny white lie – we arrived, on time, with just a couple of wrong turns!)

Upon arrival we were greeted by a number of friendly faces and I was told where I could put the pop up banner. We displayed it near the doorway so that people could see it on arrival. I handed out leaflets and pens and left some on each of the tables for people to read and take away. I also left some leaflets with the lady selling raffle tickets, for people to pick up as they came in.

I love talking about Giving Voice and Speech and Language Therapy and welcome opportunities to do this to audiences. I was quite excited for my little speech on Saturday night and the nerves didn’t really kick in until I got up on stage. I could feel the butterflies in my stomach, but I was determined to have them fly in formation! It doesn’t matter how many times I get up to talk in front of an audience, I still get nervous before I start to talk. I always practise what I am going to say, several times, before I give a talk, to ensure I am well prepared. However, the addition of an audience changes the whole situation and I am suddenly aware of how I am communicating. People tell me that I talk really fast, so I am always aware of this when talking in front of an audience, to ensure that I deliver the talk effectively. Making a speech, however short, always reminds me that I take my own communication skills for granted every day, and that for people with communication difficulties, day-to-day situations might feel this stressful on a regular basis.

I spoke for a couple of minutes about Giving Voice and Speech and Language Therapy, as well as some key facts about Aphasia and NETA. The audience were lovely and I think the little speech went down quite well :-)

I encouraged people to take the leaflets away with them and to pass them on to someone else to spread the message that little bit further.

There was a variety of great entertainers on the night, as well as a raffle, to raise vital funds for the valuable work of NETA. I had an enjoyable evening on Saturday and hope everyone else did too, whilst raising awareness  and valuable funds for a brilliant cause!

Speech and Language Therapy Transforms Lives

~ Thanks to everyone who reads my blog, I'm delighted it has exceeded 10,000 views! ~

It's Twitter time!

Welcome to my 60th post...I’m excited to see that my blog is rapidly approaching 10,000 page views! At the beginning of the year this was just over 2000 page views, so to be almost at 10,000 views is incredible! Thank you to everyone who reads it.

When I’m on twitter I often have a little look to see which celebrities are online, to tweet them my blog. Last week I tweeted it to Chico and Gary Barlow with the hope that one, or both of them might retweet it to their followers. I was very excited to find that Chico did just that (he has more than 30,000 followers!)  and he now follows me too! :-)



Retweet of my blog by Chico
#pma = positive mental attitude



Gary Barlow did not retweet my blog, but he did retweet Becky Beaumont’s. Becky is a 22 year old stroke survivor who blogs about her experiences. It is truly inspirational, and just goes to show that stroke can affect anyone at anytime in their life. Gary Barlow has more than 2 million (!) followers and it’s brilliant that he retweeted Becky’s blog to so many people! Check out Becky’s inspirational blog here - http://luckygirlbec.blogspot.co.uk/

Becky did not need a Speech and Language Therapist for her swallowing or communication needs following her stroke, however many people who have a stroke do need the specialist support of an SLT.  As you may know, the North East Trust for Aphasia offer long term support for people who have communication difficulties following a stroke (or other brain injury). Last week I got an email from NETA asking if I’d like to go along to promote Giving Voice at an event they are hosting this Saturday in Newcastle. Always welcoming of Giving Voice opportunities, I have agreed to go along with some leaflets, and to make a short speech at some point during the night :-) Event details can be found here. I’ll update my blog following the event!

Oranges and Jelly Babies

Last Sunday I went along to the Great North Run to support the thousands of runners by giving out Oranges and Jelly Babies.  My brother-in-law, Craig was running to support the North East Trust for Aphasia and completed the run in a brilliant 1hour53 minutes – it’s not too late to sponsor him if you want to help support the valuable work of NETA here.

My sister (Joanne), niece (Toni),  and I were all wearing the Giving Voice t-shirts I got printed last week. Three friends also came along to help and they were all wearing black and pink!

To say I was excited on Sunday morning, would be an understatement! There is something about the atmosphere and the sheer determination of the runners that makes being a spectator an exciting event. This coupled with the fact that we were handing out Jelly Babies and Oranges as the exhausted runners reached the 11 mile mark, made for a very exciting day!      

As you may remember, we’ve been buying Jelly Babies every week over the last couple of months to ensure that we had plenty to hand out on the day.

In total we had 50 bags and 6 boxes of Jelly Babies, 480 quarters/eighths of orange and one large tin of Cadbury’s heroes. We gave them all away to lots of grateful people! I was very excited to see that Jeff Hordley (Cain Dingle from Emmerdale) got some Jelly Babies from Si’s tin (who was completely unaware of the exciting situation, as he’s not particularly a fan of Emmerdale!) I also offered Tom Lister (Carl from Emmerdale) a Jelly Baby but he smiled and said “No Thank You”. Lots of people thanked us for our support, even if they didn’t want a jelly baby or piece of orange. It really amazes me how people have the energy to be so polite after running 11 miles, which is another reason I love the Great North Run so much.  All of the runners are heroes in my eyes!

On Friday my dad helped me construct a board that I could display Giving Voice posters on. Well, I say he helped me, it was more the other way around! I was his glamorous assistant while he did all the hard work. What a superstar! We displayed this board near where we were standing and I noticed lots of people reading it as they ran past. Two people also cheered for Speech and Language Therapy as they recognised the Giving Voice logo and message J

Some of the jelly babies

My friend and fellow SLT, Mo did a brilliant job of shouting ‘Oranges’ and ‘Jelly babies’ - so much so I think the people at 10 miles might have heard her! Hehe!

Joanne did an amazing job of cutting up all the oranges, only stopping to deal with a medical emergency. Unfortunately a young man collapsed near my sister – luckily she is a qualified nurse and one of the other people helping, a qualified doctor, so the young man got medical attention immediately, before the St John Ambulance people came and took him to get an ambulance to hospital.

Toni, Me, Joanne and Mo

My dad came along and took some photos on the day and Toni did a brilliant job of cheering on the runners with the Jelly Baby mascots I got from Cadbury last week. My mam cut up some of the oranges while Joanne was assisting the poorly gentleman.

My nephews Darius and Dom, did a super job of handing out the oranges and jelly babies with me and running along with the runners so that they didn’t need to stop.

With thanks to everyone who helped out (particularly Joanne for being chief orange cutter – which is no mean feat!) 

And to finish, here's a short video from the day...

Speech and Language Therapy Transforms Lives

Lost Voice Guy Gives Voice!

Seven weeks ago I could not have anticipated how someone suggesting having a pub quiz would turn into such a successful awareness and fund raising night. I honestly don't think it could have gone any better - thank you so much to everyone who helped to make it happen!

It was a hard slog selling tickets in the first few weeks as sales were slow, and I did begin to wonder if planning such an event had not been the best idea I’ve had. However, not one for being negative for too long, and being determined to make it work I continued to tell everyone I knew about the event.  As ticket sales began to increase and people spread the word my nerves began to turn into excitement in anticipation of the evening. Following Lost Voice Guy’s appearance on BBC Look North the week before the event also led to an increase in sales and I was very excited that it was almost a sell out on the night!

We were able to access the function room at 6pm on Thursday and we turned up with boxes full of Giving Voice things! We had pink and black balloons as well as GV ones and that all important helium to inflate them!  I love balloons and was looking forward to seeing them all blown up so I was most disappointed when we tried to use our brand new bottle of helium only to discover it was empty!  My mam rushed off to Asda to get the helium changed and I was most relieved when she returned with a new (full) bottle in hand (having got it changed no problem!)

Balloons

Setting up

We set up a production line of cutting ribbon, inflating the balloons with helium, tying knots and attaching them to the (pink and black) weights, ready to decorate the tables.

We then set up the tombola and raffle prizes, and decorated the tables with Giving Voice leaflets, balloons, quiz sheets and pens! Whilst all this was happening The Undefined Group were doing a brilliant job of setting up the PA system and lighting.

Once the room was ready we just needed to wait for the comedians and the audience to arrive ready for our night of entertainment to begin!

Raffle Prizes

Wayne Madden from yradio opened the night before introducing me to talk briefly about Giving Voice and the North East Trust for Aphasia.  I was delighted to welcome Councillor Lesley Rickerby (Executive Member for Children and Young People) and the Mayor of Ashington (John McCormack) to the event who arrived right on cue just as I mentioned him in my opening speech!

Emily Wood opened the show followed by Andy Arrowsmith, both warming up the audience with plenty of laughter before our headline act - Lost Voice Guy!

Lost Voice Guy was without a doubt – phenomenal. I have never seen so many adults crying with laughter all at once! The crowd laughed from his first joke, through to his last and lots of people stood for him at the end of his set. Everyone thought he was hilarious and lots of people told me at the end of the night that their jaws were still aching from laughing so much! (If you haven’t already seen Lost Voice Guy and you get the chance, you’d be a fool to miss out!)

Lost Voice Guy on stage

Following the comedy we had an interval, where I took the opportunity to introduce some other Speech and Language Therapists to Lesley Rickerby and John McCormack.  They were both extremely interested in learning more about Speech and Language Therapy and Giving Voice, and Lesley Rickerby would like to follow this up with a meeting in September!  

We kicked off the second half of the night by calling out some ticket numbers and rewarding these people with some prizes (of a chocolate variety!)

I then introduced Liz Panton, Speech and Language Therapist, who performed ‘Giving Voice’ on her Ukulele. This is a brilliant song that she has written herself, as part of the Giving Voice campaign,  to talk about the variety of work SLTs do.

Liz Panton, SLT

We then moved onto our pub quiz: two rounds of general knowledge and a round loosely based on communication. Wayne then took us through the answers to the four rounds (including the pictures that we’d put on the tables) before handing over to me to make the closing speech for the night. The Mayor drew the raffle then kindly made a speech about what he learned on Thursday evening about Speech and Language Therapy and said he’s looking forward to the next one (!)

I then closed the night with Thank You’s and an announcement of the funds raised. Ashington Football Club kindly donated £50 and the winning quiz team donated their £25 prize, making the total raised on the night, for NETA, a brilliant £390!!

I am still absolutely delighted with how well the night went and how much everyone seemed to enjoy it. Thanks to Chris and Andy (The Undefined Group) for doing the lights and sound, Wayne Madden for being MC and Quiz Master, Mo for being on the door, Liz for her brilliant Uke performance, Annabel, Maureen and Paul for setting up and making the night run smoothly, the wonderful audience for buying tickets, Emily Wood and Andrew Arrowsmith for their comedy and of course... Lost Voice Guy for being the star of the night!

Councillor Lesley Rickerby, John McCormack (Mayor) and me

If you'd like to help raise further funds for the North East Trust for Aphasia, my fantastic brother-in-law Craig is running the Great North Run for them in September - http://www.justgiving.com/craigseagognr any support you can give is much appreciated!

Speech and Language Therapy Transforms Lives