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Wendy Edge found that many need help
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Putting lives back on track
Sheryl Moore24/ 7/2008
"WITHOUT the team at BASIC to talk me through the things that were happening in my head, I probably would have committed suicide."
It is a powerful statement from an individual whose life had almost been destroyed as a result of a horrific head injury, but it is a sentiment that Wendy Edge recognises all too well.
The founder of Manchester's Brain and Spinal Injury Clinic (BASIC) was the victim of a devastating accident that saw her spiral into months of depression.
While playing cricket, the sports enthusiast was hit in the eye with a ball. It smashed her eye socket and under the supervision of a plastic surgeon, Wendy endured reconstructive surgery which involved the insertion of a plastic plate to rebuild her shattered socket.
She was left with partial sight, double vision and says her eye was tilted upwards.
"I felt I looked like a complete freak," says Wendy, who hails from Stockport but now lives in High Peak. "While I had follow-up hospital appointments, nobody told me my eye would eventually go back to its natural position, and I spent many months hiding in my bedroom feeling extremely depressed.
"My accident was classed as a mild injury and, at the time, I couldn't imagine what it must be like for those people that have suffered severe traumas."
Self reliance
But the 43-year-old mother of one was soon to find out and, after applying for a job at the neurosurgical department at Hope Hospital, she has spent the last 15 years working tirelessly in developing BASIC into the UK's leading resource centre for individuals and their families in crisis following traumatic brain injuries. This includes people recovering from brain haemorrhages and tumours as well as other conditions such as strokes or brain cancer.
The aim of BASIC, which employs 15 staff, is to maximise self reliance by focusing on cognitive, psychological, physical and social well-being. The goal is to help support patients back into paid work or community activity.
She says: "The brain is literally your head office and damage can have an enormous impact on every aspect of your daily life.
"Symptoms can include memory loss, inability to make decisions, loss of reasoning and judgement, plus depression as well as changes in personality and emotional behaviour.
"For example, some people who were once assertive can become extremely dependent and this can often lead to despair and even thoughts of suicide."
From its humble origins in Wendy's back bedroom, BASIC has helped thousands of people get their lives back on track and sees around 300 patients each year.
It was originally founded by Bolton businessman Derek Gaskell whose wife had life saving brain surgery at Hope Hospital. It was set up as a research charity called Neurosurgical Research, but it needed someone to develop it and Wendy was charged with the task.
In 1994, she rebranded and relaunched the charity and together with Sandra Buckley, who was a former patient at Hope, the pair set about raising its profile. They moved into a small office and were inundated with pleas for help.
Desperate
Wendy says: "We soon found out there was a huge need out there and we were deluged with calls from all over the country from people, some of whom were in a fairly desperate state.
"There were no support groups or centres which catered for their needs and a lot of these individuals desperately needed someone to talk to. So we launched a national helpline and offered counselling over the phone. We also started putting booklets together to send to people offering help and advice. It was quite basic, really, but there were thousands of people with nowhere to turn to."
As the reputation of BASIC grew so did the funding and, in 1998, the charity was able to buy its own premises adjacent to the hospital, invest in new equipment to aid rehabilitation as well as training staff - many of whom are former patients - in a range of therapies. Wendy also completed a master degree in cognitive behaviour therapy.
BASIC has also recently installed a cutting edge computerised cognitive retraining package. Described as a `mental gym', the software helps improve a patient's thought processing, listening skills, attention skills, working memory, mental processing speed, self confidence and speaking.
BASIC offers a range of rehabilitation services to get people back into work, including NVQs in literacy and numerical skills, as well as holistic therapies such as acupuncture.
The charity has also raised many thousands of pounds to fund the purchase of life-saving technology for the clinical neuroscience centre at Hope Hospital. Wendy and the staff at BASIC have helped dramatically improve, and in some cases save, the lives of hundreds of people. Her achievements have been remarkable. But this softly-spoken woman believes she has been very privileged: "It has been an honour to do this job and I've been overwhelmed at people's generosity.
"We are not in it to receive accolades. Knowing that we have helped people transform their lives following horrific injury and illness is the greatest reward of all."
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