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

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

Scary yet exciting!

On Wednesday afternoon  I received a phone call from the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists asking if I would be able to/would like to go on BBC Radio Newcastle the following morning as they had asked for an SLT to talk about what we do (as the OT and SLT services in County Durham and Darlington are going out to tender).

I was excited and nervous about the idea of talking on live radio but I always welcome new experiences to talk about speech and language therapy. The main disadvantage was having to be in Newcastle for 6.45am and thus out of my lovely warm bed at 5.30am (a time of day I never usually see!)

RCSLT were extremely supportive over the phone on Wednesday and I felt equipped to go on air and talk about how Speech and Language Therapy Transforms Lives.

On Wednesday evening I received a phone call from the radio station to have a chat about what would be talked about on the show and where I needed to go etc. The lady also recorded a short interview to use in the news bulletin before my interview (which I heard in the car on the way to the studio yesterday morning!)

I left the house early, with very little voice (having had a cold all week) and kept my fingers crossed it would return by the time I was live on air. Upon arrival I signed in, got my visitors pass and was taken along to the studio where I waited to be called in. I was excited and nervous but everyone was really friendly and I was chatting to another guest speaker who was going to be on about something else, after me. I drank lots of water to keep my throat hydrated and tried not to talk too much before going live.

When I went into the studio, I sat down and was handed headphones and told how close I needed to be to the microphone. I was a bit nervous once I was in the room and tried to concentrate on talking to the presenter (Charlie) rather than think about the fact I was on live radio. I feel the interview went well, but as always with hindsight, there was a lot more specific things I could have said and I have a bruise on my leg now from where I kicked myself after the interview(!!)... Concentrating on the position of my mouth from the mic, balancing my headphones, controlling my speed of talking (something which is usually MUCH too fast!), trying not to concentrate on my tickly throat AND thinking about what I wanted to say and the best way to say it proved to be quite a challenge!

As always when I am put in a different communicative situation I realise just how much I take my own communication for granted every single day. Being on the radio was an exciting experience and certainly something I would do again but I don’t think being a radio presenter will ever be a second job for me (the professionals make it sound so easy!)

Before I left I gave Alfie and Charlie each a Giving Voice pen and they said I’d be welcome back again (so hopefully there might be opportunity for this in the future)!

All in all an interesting experience, listen here from 1 hour 7 minutes if you want to hear the interview (please forgive my hoarse voice!)

Speech and Language Therapy Transforms Lives!

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! ~

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!!