TALKSurrey : Keep Talking May 2009

Keep Talking
May 2009

Welcome to our Spring 2009 newsletter

If you would like to download a copy of the Keep Talking newsletter for May 2009 click here (2.5Mb).

Or you can read the stories and look at the photos by scrolling down this page

This month's stories:

Rotunda to the Rescue

Welcome to our new chairman

Safety in Numbers at Knaphill

Remembering TALK in your will

Donations in lieu of flowers

How Mickey fought back from his stroke

VITALISE – combining recreation with respite

Spring Fever

Flying High with Ken

Anna Ottaway

Brooklands Collection

Guildford Collection

Hersham Collection

Walton Group at Work

Welcome to our new Volunteers

Congratulations, and our thanks, to Five Year Volunteers

Our thanks to donors who have given since our last publication

Rotunda to the Rescue

Rotunda:

Building having a circular plan and a dome. A large circular room - Rotunda is any building with a circular ground plan, often covered by a dome. It can also refer to a round room within a building (a famous example being within the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C.).

The Pantheon in Rome is a famous rotunda…

Strange as it may seem a rotunda that bears no resemblance to the above definition has come to the rescue of four Walton recoverers whose weekly trip to TALK looked like being a thing of the past. All four are severely disabled, and need assistance when using the toilet.

All was well until last year, when a change in the working schedule of the normal carer facilities at the day centre where the Walton group meet meant that “the Walton Four” would be unable to attend.

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the rotunda

After months of seeking a solution our coordinator, Jane Langley, has found the answer – thanks to a generous donation from the Mayor of Elmbridge’s fund and something called a rotunda.

Our rotunda does not fit any of the descriptions above but instead is a metal, cage-like structure into which the recoverer steps when they have reached the toilet.The rotunda then rotates so that the recoverer can easily access the toilet seat. It is a complicated and expensive piece of equipment and when the Mayor of Elmbridge’s fund heard of our plight it came up with a generous donation to fund the cost. However,TALK still had to provide two carers to help recoverers use the equipment. We are meeting half of that cost and the other half is being met by a grant from Surrey County Council, for which we are most grateful.

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When this situation first arose Jane Langley launched a campaign to redress the situation, involving contacting Members of Parliament, county council and local authority representatives as well as the mayors of all the local authorities in which TALK operates. Chairman Peter Walker said:“Our aim at that time was to seek to alter the location of the toilet. When this failed our indefatigable coordinator looked for other avenues to explore and came up with – the rotunda!

Leader of the Walton group, Janet Sutton, said: “Without the rotunda these recoverers would no longer have been able to take part in what is for them an extremely important day in their week.” “We are delighted with this news,” said Mrs Barbara Oxford, whose husband attends the group.“It was a blow when Derek could no longer go to the TALK meetings. He is thrilled that once more he can take part.”

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Welcome to our new Chairman, Mike Hawtin

Our new chairman, Mike Hawtin, takes up his post at the annual general meeting in May.

photo of mike hawtin

Mike lives in Pyrford with his wife, Judy, and has an impressive record of local voluntary work. He was chairman of Relate,West Surrey from for nine years, from 2000, a trustee of Friends of West Byfleet Health Centre from 2000 to 2007 and has acted as Treasurer of the Mayford Decorative and Fine Arts Society for five years from 2003. We have Knaphill group leader, Ben Parker, to thank for head-hunting him for TALK. Ben is a member of the Pyrford Retired Men’s Lunch Club of which Mike was chairman from 2007 until this year.

After taking economics degrees at St John’s College, Cambridge and the University of California, Berkeley Mike became a career civil servant. In this role Mike gained wide experience in a variety of areas.

He has spent time at the Treasury as the head of the Local Government Group, the Property Services Agency, where he was Principal Finance Officer, and the Export Credits Guarantee Department, where he was respectively the Principal Establishment and Finance Officers and latterly the Head of the Underwriting Group. For a while after retirement in 1995 he undertook consultancy work for the European Union and the International Monetary Fund.

As well as leading a busy life in the voluntary sector Mike finds time to enjoy his two grandchildren and indulge his interests in classical music, travel and sport. TALK is delighted that Mike has agreed to lead our charity.We look forward to working with him.

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Safety in numbers at Knaphill

If your stroke has left you feeling worried about meeting people, in case you have to say something, then we hope joining a TALK Group would help to overcome that worry.

One method we use periodically at the Knaphill Group is ‘choral speaking’ - in other words saying things together so that words can be practised whilst hiding any difficulties behind other people! Although recoverers from strokes vary greatly in their speech problems one of the important keys to regaining and improving speech seems to be constant practice. If this can, at the same time, be made enjoyable, so much the better.

Saying together humorous poems such as limericks with a good rhythm and rhyme or singing together well-known songs with good tunes backed by recorded or live music, help to reactivate the speech process. However singing is not everyone’s forte so we use it in small doses. The repetition of choruses gives a chance to improve on the first attempt such as in ‘Three Little Birds’ by Bob Marley – ‘Please don’t worry about a thing, etc’, used in a session last term.

Before Christmas we tried ‘The 12 days of Christmas’ with table groups taking on different days.The table groups knew what they were doing even if bringing in the right table at the right time proved too challenging for the conductor!

In the New Year we have used the support of a recording by the singer, Ottilie Patterson, of ‘I can’t give you anything but love’ with Chris Barber’s jazz band, perhaps reflecting the present economic climate!

Whatever approach is adopted to help speech, we urge Recoverers to please keep practising.

Chris Risdale-Smith and Ben Parker

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Remembering TALK in your will

We have recently produced a leaflet that deals with how you can help TALK by leaving a gift in your will. If you would like a copy please ask any group leader or contact Peter Walker 01483 539500

Donations in lieu of flowers

What are donations in lieu of flowers?

Some people prefer to have flowers at a funeral from immediate family members only, so they ask friends, colleagues and neighbours to send donations to TALK instead.

This is known as an in memoriam donation and represents a meaningful way of remembering and honouring a loved one.

If you would like to arrange in memoriam donations your funeral director can help you with the most suitable wording to include in your newspaper notice.

You may wish to use something on the following lines: Donations can be made to TALK registered charity no. 1072526, c/o Mike Hawtin, Far End, Old Avenue,West Byfleet, KT 14 6AE, or at use the donate now button at the top of this page

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How Mickey fought back from his stroke

jean an dmickey green

Seven years ago Esher businessman Mickey Green was finalising arrangements with American associates with a view to bringing to the UK the very successful company known as Krispy Kreme Doughnuts.

His bags were packed, ready for the flight to the US where he would sign contracts, when, a week before the flight, he suffered his stroke “Everything had gone,” recalls Mickey, sitting with his wife, Jean in their home as they remembered the events that were to change their lives so drastically.

Fortunately, the business deal was rescued and Mickey and partner became the owner of Krispy Kreme Doughnuts in the UK, a business that has prospered and now has 41 outlets.

For Mickey and Jean the stroke was a challenge to be met and overcome together, as they had dealt with other events in their lives, beginning when, frustrated by his attempts to become a journalist, Mickey went to work as a Fleet Street photographer. From this beginning Mickey founded a photography business that led to his company becoming official photographers for all the film companies in the UK and America. “I have photographed very many famous people,” said Mickey.“Often the Queen and members of the royal family would attend film premieres, so, of course, I also became official royal photographer for those evenings and Jean was my caption writer.”

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The famous names that have been caught in Mickey’s lens reads like a history of the cinema over the past half century.They include Winston Churchill, Princess Diana, Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, Sean Connery, Cilla Black,Alfred Hitchcock, Gary Cooper, Sophia Loren, Fred Astaire, Gene Kelley, John Wayne,Tony Curtis, Cary Grant,Audrey Hepburn, Mel Gibson, Mick Jagger, Brigitte Bardot, Diana Dors, Harrison Ford, Charlton Heston, Clint Eastwood and Gregory Peck. “By expanding this business into other regions we eventually employed over 600 people and launched the company on the London Stock Market in 1989.After 40 years in this business I decided to branch out into property and started a company providing homes for people with learning disabilities. Eventually we owned 56 homes,” Mickey said.

“We have had a wonderful life and been so happy,” said Jean.“And we were not going to let the stroke spoil our lives.”“When the stroke happened we were told that Mickey would not get any better and that it would be better to put him somewhere to be looked after and that I should get on with the rest of my life.”

That was something that Jean could not accept. “I read about stroke on the Internet,” she said. “Everyone said that the most important thing was to keep the mind active from day one.” Every morning while Mickey was in hospital Jean would arrive at seven o’clock to be with him.“The speech therapist would come in but could only allocate ten minutes to each person. I said,‘I know that you haven’t got the time to do this.Tell me what to do and I’ll do it.’ I bought books for five to seven-year-olds, teaching how to speak and spell and to recognise pictures. I persevered every day. I bought Scrabble and used the letters to build words.” Jean also obtained books from America to help her in her task of re-educating Mickey.

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“I told the family that Dad and I work from 10am to 12noon every day, that the phones would be switched off and that no one should come to the house during those hours.”

Because Mickey was experiencing difficulty in walking he needed the assistance of three people to get him to the gym.“Using the equipment was difficult at first,” recollected Jean.“Lots of people said that I was pushing Mickey too hard.”

At this point in our interview Mickey interrupted:“ I don’t think you were.” With the perspective of several years Mickey is able to see the progress that he has made. A major milestone on the route to recovery was the restoration of his driving licence.

“Now I drive to TALK and to play golf,” he says. A significant milestone on the road to recovery occurred when Mickey took part in a drug trial involving the use of the drug Aricept.“About five weeks after Mickey started the course it was like a light being switched on,” remembers Jean. “Formerly, we would watch a DVD for about ten minutes and then I would stop it and ask Mickey whether he understood it. Usually he had not followed it and I had to explain. Now I never have to do that. It has totally changed our lives.”

Mickey joined the Walton branch of TALK and is an enthusiastic attender.“I enjoy going there. Before my stroke my diary was crowded.Then when I came out of hospital it was empty.That is very demoralising.As well as helping me, I am able to show others what progress can be made.”

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VITALISE – COMBINING RECREATION WITH RESPITE

We take a look at an organisation that believes disability should never be a barrier to choice when it comes to holidays.

image from vitalise

For people with disabilities caused by stroke, finding genuinely accessible accommodation for a short break or holiday can be a fraught process. People seeking a respite break for the first time are naturally very wary of the term ‘respite care’, which perhaps conjures up visions of some cold, impersonal institution. The national charity Vitalise has the answer.

Formerly called the Winged Fellowship Trust, Vitalise has over 40 years’ experience of providing bespoke nursing care, while challenging conventional notions of respite. Vitalise’s ethos is freedom and choice; it firmly believes that, when it comes to holidays, disabled people and carers should have the same choices and opportunities as anyone else would reasonably expect.

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Vitalise provides over 7,000 weeks of breaks each year at four fully accessible UK Centres in Essex, Nottingham, Southampton and Southport. Its nursing staff can cater for people with over 150 different disabilities, including stroke survivors. Each Centre provides 24-hour care on-call and personal support and, in addition to specialist nursing care, volunteers are on hand to provide companionship and support.A fifth Centre in Cornwall provides accessible activity and adventure breaks for groups of disabled children and adults.

image from vitalise

Vitalise has recently entered into partnership with the Stroke Association further to improve provision for stroke survivors. Hundreds of stroke survivors visit Vitalise for much-needed holidays each year. From aphasia to mobility issues, each Centre’s experienced care team is well aware that stroke affects individuals in different ways and can tailor the care provided to suit the particular needs of the individual.

On every Vitalise break the accent is very much on activity and enjoyment. Guests comment that the Centres - both in their atmosphere and appearance - are more like holiday hotels than respite homes. This reflects the Vitalise philosophy of informality, inclusion and fun.

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But perhaps what sets Vitalise apart from other respite break providers is the sheer range of activities in which the guests can participate. There is a choice of literally hundreds of different activities throughout the year. In addition to daytime activities and excursions, evening entertainment is laid on - Vitalise’s guests are never bored! Dozens of special Experience Breaks focus on particular interests or pastimes, allowing guests to enjoy activities that would otherwise be very difficult or even impossible for them to participate in.

It is the provision of expert care that makes the difference, since it enables the guests to focus on enjoying their break. Vitalise guest Toni-Marie Barker enthuses:“At home I manage my own care and while this system works very well, my care is delivered very much to a set structure, with hardly any room for spontaneity. This is where Vitalise really makes a difference! I am able to spend my time in a beautiful, relaxed setting, where I have the freedom to choose how my care is delivered and how my holiday is spent.”

Providing this level of quality and choice is not easy, but Vitalise achieves this thanks to its experienced care staff, its legions of enthusiastic volunteers, a fleet of accessible vehicles and, most importantly, a ‘can do’ attitude. The care staff at Vitalise never dwell on what the disabled guests can’t do, but focus on what they can.

For more information about Vitalise call 0845 345 1970,

http://www.vitalise.org.uk/

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SPRING FEVER

photos of flowers

For our session on 27th February,Avril O’Brien tried to assure us that Spring had arrived with a carload of Spring flowers to prove it was more than just wishful thinking. However, her car was not convinced and having stalled at the traffic lights in Knaphill, decided to hibernate.

Unfazed,Avril, with minimal help, hauled the car to a less obstructive position, phoned the AA, contacted me at The Vyne and the flowers and material for the session were swiftly collected ready for the session.

Alas,Avril was left sitting outside ‘The Anchor’ awaiting car recovery.

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Sets of the flowers were displayed on each of the Recoverer tables with a quiz to see who knew their flora. Even if you knew sticky buds meant Horse Chestnut and fluffy ones Pussy Willow, distinguishing between Alder and Hazel catkins was rather more demanding.

Another Spring quiz varied from telling the difference between frog and toad spawn, naming the large man with the tiny name who made a hit with ‘Tiptoe through the Tulips’ and completing the phrase ‘As mad as a ..............’ – no the Spring one, not the ‘hatter’.

Whether we knew the answers or not there was plenty to talk about.

Avril, a long standing volunteer, helps with organising sessions and is a great ideas person. She made it for the last quarter of an hour but too late for coffee. Nevertheless, thanks Avril for providing us with an entertaining session, albeit in absentia.

Ben Parker

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photo of ken

Ken Yard was an electronics engineer and received an OBE for services to the Radio Industry.

In January 2007,nearing his 67th birthday,he had a stroke which left him severely dysphasic and with right-sided paralysis.However it is not in Ken’s ever- cheerful nature to accept defeat.He has battled back and has continued to improve his speech to the extent that,at the Knaphill session on 26th March, after a little preparatory speech‘coaching’ by Mary Walters,a volunteer,he entertained the Group with a talk on aviation.

Ken was based mainly at Brooklands and his work had included checking planes for‘stall’ and testing the navigation systems,communications,hydraulics, autopilots,air-conditioning,etc,taking many hours per plane,both on the ground and in the air.

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Testing took him to the high and hot conditions of Johannesburg,the cold and low of Montreal and,for take-off noise assessment,to Spain. Ken’s favourites were the very safe and reliableViscount andVC10. Aircraft testing could be dangerous.By comparison, electronic spying on the IRA,to which he later moved, was much safer! Ken then talked us through projected photos of Brooklands and various aircraft down the ages.

Next there was a multi-choice aviation quiz,devised by Ken (on which the ladies failed miserably!). In conclusion a remote controlled dragonfly with flapping,rather than fixed,wings (loaned by my grandson) did a circle round the room and a competition was held for whose paper aeroplane would fly the furthest.(This time the ladies triumphed!)

The Group agreed unanimously that they were well able to follow Ken’s spoken word,even if technical comprehension sometimes proved to be beyond us. We congratulate Ken on his achievement.

Ben Parker,Group Leader

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Anna Oatway - 93 Years Young

Anna has just passed her 93rd birthday. She has been a volunteer at Knaphill for some six years. She is an accomplished artist and is depicted with one of her recent oil paintings.

We send our very best wishes to you, Anna.

photo of anna ottaway

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Brooklands collection

On 28th March our Brooklands collection raised £482.38.

brooklands collection

brroklands collrction

Our thanks go to all who lobbied shoppers and Marks & Spencer and Tesco.

brooklands collection

brooklands colelction

brooklands collection

These are a selection of pictures showing some of those who took part in the collection campaign.

brooklands collection

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Guildford Collection

Our Guildford Street collection is on 13th June and we shall need volunteers to shake tins.

Please let your group leader know if you can help.

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Hersham Collection

hersham collection

Jane Langley, David and Janet Sutton with the manager at Waitrose, Hersham where the collection box for TALK raised £284

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Walton group at Work

walkton group at work

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We extend a welcome to our TALK new volunteers

Joanne ALLGOOD (ex-recoverer)

Marion HARDING

Betty ARKELL (ex-recoverer)

Katrina ROSS

Hannah WILLIAMS

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Congratulations to TALK five year volunteers

Ellen BOWLES

Ruth EVANS

Janet SUTTON

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We are grateful to the those who have donated since our last publication

Mr Michael Ayres J.W and Mrs D.R. Perriton (in memory)
Mr W.R Haynes (in memory)
TESCO collection Ashford
Ms Lynn Sutton (cards)
Mr N. and Mrs A.C Clayton
The Mayor of Elmbridge’s Charity fund
Celia Stonehill
Mr U. D. Cook
Waitrose
J Little (ex volunteer Cranleigh)
P.R and P.J. Brind Douglas Law (in memory)
Mrs O. Pettit
Ms Jane Gill,
Mr and Mrs D. Pickance,
Mrs J. Shepherd (in memory of David Hare)
Worplesdon Parochial Church Council
Marks & Spencer
Tavistock Trust for Aphasia

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