We’ve been working towards the launch of Rehab4Life for more than three years. It’s felt like a long slog from that lightbulb moment in Chicago when I knew I had to get money to help people to fast track rehab. There were times I felt like throwing in the towel and it’s been very difficult to imagine launching such a unique scheme, especially in the present climate but all along I have had a gut feeling it was exactly right.After all the hard graft, we are pleased that insurers and stakeholders see the importance of channelling money to victims of traumatic brain injury before a final compensation deal, to ensure their chances of recovery are maximised.
In the middle of February I chaired the first meeting of the North West Acquired Brain Injury Forum. It’s nationally headed by the renowned global brain injury expert, Professor Mike Barnes, who I’m pleased to say is backing Rehab4Life.We are aiming to get together a lot of like-minded professionals, including solicitors, brain injury clinicians, case managers and social workers from Manchester, Cheshire, Liverpool, Lancashire and Cumbria.This team is going to look at brain injury services and assess how provision can be improved in both the public and private sectors.The forum is not only for those who have suffered traumatic brain injury but those who have an acquired brain injury, for example, a stroke, haemorrhage or meningitis. Teaming up like this is an exciting, positive development for all patients with brain injuries and that’s our main concern.
It feels fantastic to launch Rehab4Life and we’re planning a party in the near future for everyone who has been involved. Dave doesn’t know this yet but I’m going to rope him and his band in to do the entertainment, he’s really good and he’ll enjoy being on the stage.Tracy and Peter will be there because without them we wouldn’t have set up Rehab4Life or even be operating the kind of practice we run, I can’t imagine what route our lives would have gone if they hadn’t been born.When you have a catastrophically brain damaged baby your life is altered forever. There are very black times when you can’t imagine feeling as you used to.We are in a very different place now. Tracy is 27 and Peter is 20 and we have been amazed at how their lives have transformed and, with them, ours.
Tracy is living with her partner, Andy, who also has quadriplegic cerebral palsy. She’s been shopping this week, with her carers, because it’s Andy’s 30th birthday soon. They met when they went to college in Lancaster, when Tracy was 16, and have been together ever since.
At work I’m representing a couple with the aim of getting further interim payments for their eight-year-old son who was massively brain damaged at birth. He was premature and went into distress during premature labour. Unfortunately, there was a significant and unacceptable delay in delivery, which caused the problems. All his limbs are affected and there is a degree of blindness along with hearing problems. His parents sought us out because of our professional expertise and personal experience bringing up children with brain damage. They appreciate our insider knowledge and the fact that we understand what they are going through because we’ve been there ourselves.
Outside work life is very busy. We’ve got builders at Tracys house because the garage is being torn down and an extension built for Andy to move into. It’s going to be state-of-the-art accommodation with a hoist attached to a tracking system in the ceiling so Andy can be transferred from bed to chair easily. Dave’s been doing DIY on a lesser scale at Peter’s home. He’s been drafted in to put up shelves etc and they have both been diverted by watching Simpsons DVDs. I think Dave’s having a bit of break; he’s been having sleepless nights with his eight-month-old son, James. I remember what that was like.
I’ve been missing going out on my Suzuki Bandit 1200 because the weather’s been treacherous. I can’t wait for spring, and a good run out.The Suzuki’s a big, solid touring bike that’s very comfortable to ride and it’s taken me all over the continent. I have a plan - I’d really love to get a group of solicitors who also happen to be bikers interested in Rehab4Life’s scheme, and get them together to ride the Big Sur down the west coast of California and ultimately have a conference at the end of it with biking American lawyers to swap ideas.
I’ve being skiing, not abroad but at the Chill Factor near Manchester’s Trafford Centre. It’s the country’s biggest natural snow ski slope. I’m intermediate and I love it.
When I get the chance I’ve been reading my favourite author, CJ Sanson. It’s his fourth historical thriller ‘Revelation’ and can't put it down. It’s about the internecine goings on at the court of Henry VIII with murder, politics and a great sleuth investigation conducted by a hunchback barrister.
And all the time I’m busy I’m thinking about Rehab4Life, how I want it to work for people who need the help and how coincidences in life shape you - Tracy, Peter, Dave, families I’ve helped. jetlag and lying awake all night in a Chicago hotel room- all that mix of random chances.