Lives
Strategic aim: Amplify the voice of families after ABI so their unique experiences are heard, and their individual needs understood.
Anchor Point’s Letter to self project
We invited family members of people with ABI to write about their experiences of trying to make sense of the world of brain injury in the form of a letter to their past self.
This project was funded by the University of Derby Knowledge Exchange Impact Accelerator Fund
“I’d like to think that any family member who’s going through this could learn and benefit from what we felt. I’m no psychologist, but what I can tell you is the biggest value that has come out of doing this for us as a family, is we now understand each other. It was a really powerful thing to do.”
Watch the video and download our booklet
Want to get involved?
If you would like to write your own letter and add this to our collection please download our project brief and send it to us via anchorpoint@UKABIF.org.uk
Through our eyes: Photo wall project
We are launching a photo wall project. Click below to read a short invitation explaining this project and how you can contribute.
Read our ‘lives’ blog
The long slow wait will soon be over,
Then reality will start to bite.
You’re coming home to only ME,
How can that be right?
And now you’re home, returned to me,
But hold on, just WHO ARE YOU?
This isn’t who you used to be,
You’re not the person I once knew.
All the while the world goes by,
And nobody asks about you.
You’re fine, they think, home at last,
No idea what we’re going through.
As the years go by, I see brief glimpses,
Of who you used to be.
People think I’m lucky you are here,
I don’t that share that sometimes I disagree.
This life is like a prison cell.
For a crime I’ve not committed.
For this sentence, there is no end.
To my fate I have submitted.
I know it could be different,
If some help would come along,
Or even just a friendly face,
To give me strength to carry on.
A life Rewritten: Invisible, Ignored, Depleted
A Poem by Sally Atkins
Today is not a normal day,
Yet it feels like any other.
But later as the day unfolds,
Our lives will change forever.
What has happened to you?
Lying in that bed.
Tubes, machines, and beeping things,
All framed around your head.
This place is loud and frightening,
You look like you might die.
All the while I sit beside you,
I can’t help but dwell on WHY?
Over time my heightened dread,
Is replaced with gnawing tension.
How long will this go on I think,
Life in suspended animation.
Then gradually you start to wake.
Now I feel like I might cope.
All the pain evaporates,
Replaced by a sense of hope.
Time goes by so slowly,
Wandering through these same old halls,
Its like a different world in here,
Hidden within these clean white walls.
Yet outside the world just goes on by.
I numbly float from day to day.
People ask me how you are.
‘Getting better’ is all I say.
I know soon you will be coming home,
I am excited but also scared.
How are we to cope with this?
I don’t yet feel prepared.
Where is the guidance that I need?
Someone to hold my hand?
The help that’s here is all for you.
I don’t know where I stand.
We’d love to hear from you.
If you have any comments or use this resource to help others understand why families matter after ABI please let us know.