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February 2010

Welcome to our Winter 2010 newsletter - A happy new year to all
 

This month's stories:

David Gets In The Builders

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photo of david smith
When David Smith retired as the highly popular head of Guildford County School the last thing on his mind was a wholesale redesign of his home in Guildford.

But, six years after his stroke, David and his wife Linda have adapted their home in a way that has, in Linda’s words, “totally transformed our lives.” Because he has to use a wheelchair and because their home is on a hilly site David and Linda encountered severe problems in getting out and about. The way they set about overcoming this typifies their approach to a lifestyle that was radically altered by David’s stroke. The builder were called in to carry out a redesign of the living accommodation and to construct a lift to take David and his wheelchair out to the street.

Like so many partners of stroke recoverers, Linda found herself facing numerous challenges. To ensure that she was able to talk to the consultant caring for David in hospital she was at his bedside at 7.30am, ready for the morning rounds. “It worked and I was able to have a conversation,” she said.

After his stroke David attended TALK’s Tuesday morning group for a short time but his health was not good and he contracted pneumonia which set back his progress considerably. He had to give up the group but TALK did not give up David. One of our volunteers, Anne Lewis, a retired SALT and a home visitor, took over.

“For two years after his stroke progress was very slow,” recalled Linda. “David also developed stroke epilepsy.” Fortunately David never lost his optimistic personality and dry humour, which had endeared him to countless students and colleagues during his years at work.

Now David has become expert at manipulating his MP3 player, allowing him to indulge his love of music. Thanks to the building operations David is able to reach his vehicle via the newly installed lift, enabling him and Linda to travel out and about.

Recently he celebrated his 70th birthday and generously asked all those who took part in the celebrations to contribute to TALK rather than give presents.
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