I have been traveling on my own on a Thursday for quite a while now and I enjoy it.
I like the freedom and knowing I am not having to drag my mum or dad out of work to take me along.
And I also like the fact that when I am on my own I handle things my own way such as asking a stranger for help maybe? Or walking where and what direction and what speed and so on.
I do feel sometimes when people take a look at me they don't think I am capable of doing this and that... They would be surprised :).
Your Headway went out! On a day trip was it? Does your Headway go out often? Ours has been to Marwell zoo a couple of times and we have been on a barge before that went along chichester canal.
The things people made hundreds to thousands of years ago is pretty good stuff. And when you see what they did from virtually nothing to what humanity does now, it kind of puts us to shame :).
Your Headway tries to go out once a month! Your Headway sounds quite active then :).
I used to attend another disabled group called the Disability Activity Group (DAG for short) and they were a small time group that would go out at least once a month, sometimes twice or thrice.
They might go out to a local museum or walk through the high street or even have a picnic and when we were indoors we would either sit around chatting or play games.
Our Headway is lucky to get out once a year!
I was told when I joined Headway that they went on holidays and a member has told me that he went to Cornwall with Headway once, lucky devil.
I haven't been on holiday with Headway but have been out on days trips.
I think the main reason we don't go out much on day trips and holidays is because of the funds. It's all about money today.
And with an exceptionally cruel government, money can be hard to get hold of.
Oh yes, it definitely depends a lot on who is running the group too.
When I first joined Headway, there was about eight members of staff. Some were payed and some were trusted volunteers.
Over the years, charities experienced funding cuts. This is also one of the reasons why my other disabled group the DAG closed down because of lack of funding.
Since I have been at Headway we have had about five different people managing Headway.
The last manager we had was terrible. Some people had lost interest in going because of her and also they found other things to do.
Anyway, this manager has gone now and another lady has taken over and she is much, much better and I believe Headway is on the rise once again.
But even with her management, their isn't a great number of staff going around.
There is only 3 payed members of staff and they work part time as well and there are a lot more volunteers now but they can only come by when they are available.
I expect if our Headway had more payed members of staff and more trusted volunteers then we probably would be able to get out and do more activities.
What you mentioned about bowling, bingo, crazy golf is what the DAG used to do.
It is a shame they had to close. As I say, they were a small time group but it was good.
Through that group though, I am a member of another disabled group called Dis-play.
The group was actually invented over 30 years ago from a lady/ex nurse and it was set up in her front room.
Over the years, the group got way bigger and the group rents a hall they can use now.
The group is huge and because of the big group, it is hard to go out and do stuff so most of the games and things is done indoors.
Everyone seems to enjoy it though and it is through that group that has helped out with my art too :).
I just bought my art along to this group one day in 2011, I think, and I happened to catch the eye of the ladies who run the group because they are also fans of art.
One of the ladies has an artistic friend who I think has an art class somewhere. Anyway, this other artistic lady sometimes meets up with me at Dis-play and she passes on her knowledge of art and it's really helping me out, as you have noticed :).
i only go into town at weekend with my wife. shes learnt how to distract me from possible outbursts.
because my behaviour is un predictable and my thought process is my tongue i prefer to stay at home during the week.
there is a day centre for the over 50s less than a 10 min bus ride and a very short walk , but since my stroke i wont speak to strangers and stay away from them unless my wife is with me. im totally opposite to the way i was.
but on a positive note there are things about me and my new journey i feel excited about.
typing for one thing,because i need to think what im writing and the spelling, i dont swear
I spent about six years at home, it was very boring but because of my BI I didn't really know where else to turn.
Thank god for parents though :). I had an appointment at my hospital in 2007. My mum picked up a leaflet for a place called Headway, you might know of them :).
I later got more details and ended up joining them that year and have not tuned back.
When I went back to the hospital after I had joined Headway, docs were asking me what I as doing with myself. I said I now go to Headway and they said "Oh really. What's that?"
!!!
The leaflet came from their hospital and no one knew what Headway was!
Anyway, where I was at home for years, it was then that I lost a lot of confidence and motivation and I was very anti social as well.
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Honoured to Win The Headway Award
The cat is well and truly out of the bag!
