Wednesday 25 March 2015

The Brotherhood of the Disabled

I started this blog back in December as a means of helping raise awareness about stroke - how anyone can be affected, what the risk factors are and how to help stroke-survivors.

Well, it certainly seems to be doing that - it's had well over 200 page views in the past week. As a journalist, I know the importance of getting out there and telling the story. That's why I agreed to be interviewed on BBC Radio WM last week and why I appeared in my local paper, the Tamworth Herald, on Thursday (http://www.tamworthherald.co.uk/Just-49-suffered-major-stroke-Martin-fighting/story-26195221-detail/story.html).

The Herald story, in particular, seems to have been well-received. I spoke to a fair number of people who had seen it either in the paper or on their website; I hope it will have helped some of them to a greater understanding of the condition and maybe inspire them to support some of the stroke/brain injury charities I support, such as the Stroke Association, Different Strokes or Headway.

But this week, I want to ask you to give a thought to one of my ex-bosses. I won't name him, because I don't need to, but he was a prime candidate for a stress-related stroke; long unsocial hours, bad diet, fearsome temper (He could kick a waste bin like no-one I've ever met....). In the end, though, ignoring his diabetes got him. At the same time as I was in hospital, he was in hospital having one of his legs removed because of gangrene.

We met on Monday, for the first time since then, to have a drink or several with some old colleagues. Of course, everyone else wanted to know how I cope living with a stroke; I wanted to know how he copes living with an artificial leg - at least I'm still in one piece after all, even if it is damaged goods.

But he was as stoic as I am - life is what it is now, we can't put back the clock, we have to get on with it. Yes, he gets angry at times; so do I. Yet what struck me about our situation was that he chaperoned me everywhere; sat me down in the pub, organised the trains, even organised a taxi from the train station to Warrillow Towers, an eight-minute walk which I do regularly. And he's the one with the artificial leg who must find it painful and difficult to walk.

I suppose you could call it The Brotherhood of the Disabled; whatever you call it, I continue to be deeply touched by and grateful for people's concern. I was glad I met him and my former colleagues from my previous life; the concern of all of them for myself and my ex-boss continued to show me the good side of humanity

Wednesday 18 March 2015

It's all happening at Warrior Towers

It's been an interesting week at Warrior Towers. On Monday afternoon, the Warrior tattoo which I mentioned a couple of weeks ago was inked onto my left forearm. It took the best part of two hours to do but Jen Moore of Nala in Tamworth did a fabulous job and I'm really pleased with it.

All the credit for it, of course, should go to my dear friend, fellow stroke-survivor and Warrior, 18-year-old Jade Driscoll-Batchelor, who designed and drew it. I'm really pleased with it and I thought I'd risk losing my whole blog (well, you know me and technology...) by featuring it here.

The picture's a bit indistinct because it was taken when my arm was still wrapped in cellophane straight after it was done but I think it does the job. If you can't read it properly, the words say: "I fight for my health every day in ways most people don't understand. I'm not lazy, I'm a warrior."

I'm dedicating it to all disabled people, stroke-survivors in particular and especially to the remarkable Jade.
Then on Monday night, my interview with BBC Radio WM was broadcast. Now I've no idea how many people listen to WM at 11.30pm on a Monday but the wonders of the internet mean it's probably a lot more than it used to be. The BBC iPlayer means it can be heard on the web for a month after broadcast so if you're reading this in the month after March 16, this is the link: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p02kvkyl. I start about 90 minutes in to the broadcast.

As I said last week, I felt I said everything I wanted to say and got my points across without talking too fast. I still hate listening to myself on the radio, though. 

Taking a step back to Saturday, I was interviewed by a young film-maker and photographer from Bristol called Amy Baker, who is doing a university project about naturism. Obviously, I did a fair number of these kinds of interviews when I was editor of British Naturism so I know what to say and how to say it. But some interviewers have a pre-determined view of naturism before they start - I don't think Amy did. She is going to let me know when the project is finished and I'll be fascinated to hear the results. 

On Tuesday, of course, it was St Patrick's Day. With Mrs Warrior's family being Irish, this always means a bit too much Guinness and Jameson's. It's fun, but I do wake up with a sore head the following day. 

And that's not wise because March 18 (today as I write this) is my birthday. My 51st birthday. But as I keep saying, age is just a number and you're as old as you think you are. And (unless I'm having one of my bad strokie days) I don't feel 51. Honestly. 


Tuesday 10 March 2015

An inspiration? That's for you to say, not me - I just get on with it

Firstly, a spot of self-promotion, if I may. In my last post, I noted that this blog wasn't far away from achieving 1,000 page-views; not bad, considering that I only began writing on December 16, 2014, the first anniversary of my stroke.

Well, we've got there; I've just checked the latest stats and we are into four figures, which does suggest to me that someone apart from myself and Mrs Warrior cares about my stroke-related ramblings.

There was, of course, evidence of that at the end of my last post when I revealed that my local radio station had been in touch. Well, I spoke with Graham Torrington of BBC Radio West Midlands last Thursday evening and the interview should be broadcast in the week beginning Sunday March 15. I've been told that they will let me know the date and that they will also put on their website the details of how to contribute to some of the key charities who have supported me in my various battles.

I won't spoil the interview other than to say that I didn't gabble, I didn't forget to mention any key points and I didn't fall into any journalistic traps that I could see.

I'll put a special post on here before and after the broadcast.

The Derby Telegraph photographer I mentioned here last week fell victim to 'organisational cock-up' syndrome and his visit has been rescheduled for two weeks' time, by the way.

In the meantime, I gave a presentation on difference and diversity to my colleagues on the counselling-skills course last Wednesday. I spoke about being disabled, I spoke about being born with  spina bifida and hydrocephalus, I spoke about having epilepsy - and I spoke about being a keen naturist and having edited a leading naturist magazine for four years (I now write a monthly column on disability and naturism for another magazine).

Words like 'inspirational' were being bandied around afterwards. That's for others to say, not me; I just get on with life the best I can. But if, by my various media activities, I can help others make the best of lives which might seem blighted in some way, I'll be a happy man.

Wednesday 4 March 2015

Spreading the word - on paper, by mouth and with ink

As this blog heads ever closer towards collecting 1,000 page views since I began writing in mid-December, it's starting to dawn on me that the wider world might just be interested in my story and how I have got where I am. The day after I write this, I am hopeful that my local paper, the Tamworth Herald, will carry a story about me while next Monday (March 9) a photographer from the Derby Telegraph is due to be present as Emily Smedley of breathebalancebeactivated.com puts me through my regular hour of torture and agony on her treatment table.

And it's not just newspapers. I was sitting doing nothing in particular yesterday afternoon, as us strokies have to do on occasion to preserve our energy, when my mobile rang and a producer from my local BBC radio station asked to speak to me. He'd heard about my story from a friend who works there and decided I was a good subject for a feature on their late-night show.

Unlike their BBC counterparts on Radio 5 Live, who set up live interviews all over the place and drop most of them when a 'better' story comes along, this will be pre-recorded and kept 'in the can' for a couple of weeks until an opportunity for broadcast presents itself.

It's a big chance for me to tell my story to a wider audience, to heighten stroke-awareness even more and to generate interest in the work I do making people aware of stroke; that it doesn't just catch old people (yet again this morning, I heard "You don't look old enough to have had a stroke''), that it can sometimes be a silent illness in that survivors can be brain-damaged but look healthy and that it changes lives in an instant.

I haven't yet worked out what I'm going to say but my journalism training tells me that I will need to have something ready to say and then say it at every opportunity.

No doubt the interview will feature in this blog next week. What is likely to feature in this blog in two weeks' time is the 'Warrior' tattoo which I've decided to have done for my birthday (which birthday? Mind your own business, LOL) on March 18. Designed by a young stroke-survivor who has become a close friend of mine in the last few months and who only recently celebrated her 18th birthday, it will highlight my journalistic background alongside my life as a stroke-survivor. Featuring a pot of ink, a quill and a scroll of paper, it will say: "I fight for my health every day in ways most people don't understand. I'm not lazy. I'm a warrior"

Apt, don't you think?