BY SURVIVORS AND CARERS FOR SURVIVORS AND CARERS

FRANKLY SPEAKING

If any of us had been told in March that in late September we would still be facing Covid 19 with little sign of respite we would not have believed it. The sad reality is that Covid seems to be here to stay and we are going to have to adjust to living with it rather than defeating it, at least until we have a vaccine. It is a scary thought. The arguments rage about the best way to protect us and I am far from an expert but I just wonder what would have happened if all the money being spent on the economy had been spent on our NHS instead so that everyone who caught Covid 19 could be guaranteed the best possible treatment we might well have been better off. It is hard not to feel a degree of sympathy for some of our politicians. With-out being party political I happen to believe that our own Robin Swann has done his very best. His straight talking and behaviour gives me a good amount of confidence. I heard on the radio recently that some countries now have zero levels so there is still hope.

Cannot say the same thing about Brexit. The pandemic had almost put it out of our minds but it is back with a vengeance and we look increasingly as if we are heading for a no-deal. We will not even talk about international treaties.

Have to refer to the sad loss of John Hume. I know he was not universally liked but thousands of people are alive because of him and we have enjoyed many years of relative peace because of his vision. It was really heart warming to hear so many tributes to him from all sides of our community. We also lost a great Englishman, well, an adopted Irishman, Jack Charlton who brought happiness of a different kind to the island.

To end on a lighter note, one of my bugbears is commercial advertising on TV. I hate the way programmes are continually interrupted by inane adverts but I have to say two ads recently have really taken my fancy. Do you know the way to San Jose and is the big green eyed monster under your bed? Finally, do you think my grandson had an agenda when he said to me, before returning to University in England, that he would like to be on the mailing list for Brainbox as, wait for it, he loves Frankly Speaking? The boy will go far.

FACILITY HIRE

We welcome enquiries, especially from voluntary and community groups, for the use of our facilities including our small meeting room, large activity room and fully fitted kitchen. Our pub with no beer is also available for hire for small functions, rehearsal space, meetings and so on. Ring us on 30839943 or email management@thebraininjuryfoundation.com

MEMBERSHIP ENQUIRIES

Membership is open to anyone over 18 with a brain injury and their carers and family members. Associate membership is also available to anyone with an interest in brain injury. To discuss membership call at Open House any Friday evening between 7.30 and 10.30pm or phone Frank on 07740823713 or Aileen on 07596639487 for an informal chat or to arrange a home visit.

OFFICE HOURS

Monday-Friday 9am to 4.30pm.Tel 30839943, helpline 07596639487; mobile 07740823713; emails: info@thebraininjuryfoundation.com ; management@thebraininjuryfoundation.com

STAY INFORMED

If you want to keep up with the news and keep people informed you can follow us on Facebook. You can also follow us on our website, www.thebraininjuryfoundation.com. Finally, we welcome any contribution you might wish to make to our newsletter. Email Frank at in-fo@thebraininjuryfoundation.com Please also make sure Aine has your mobile number so she can include you in our texting service.

IF YOU HAVE FINISHED WITH THIS NEWSLETTER WHY NOT LEAVE IT SOMEWHERE WHERE IT MIGHT BE READ BY OTHERS OR PASS IT TO A FRIEND?

BY SURVIVORS AND CARERS FOR SURVIVORS AND CARERS

BRAINBOX

NEWSLETTER OF THE BRAIN INJURY FOUNDATION ISSUE 81 SEPTEMBER 2020

CONTACTS: 30839943 OR 07740823713 OR HELPLINE 07596639487

EMAIL info@thebraininjuryfoundation.com WEBSITE: www.thebraininjuryfoundation.com

OUR HOUSE, 23 Newry Road, Camlough, Newry BT35 7JP

Trusthouse Charitable Foundation

SMALL STEPS TO RE-OPENING

These last months have been more than difficult for our members as many missed their normal routine of coming to us every week and this caused undoubted stress. The committee has been very cautious in moving towards re-opening and so we decided to contact our members and seek their views on coming back. We also conducted a full risk assessment and consulted all the relevant guidelines and on the basis of that research the committee has decided to move forward for a trial period by offering this programme starting on Monday 28th September.

OUR HOUSE, CAMLOUGH

Monday 11am -1.00pm Picture framing , maximum 4 people

Monday 11am -1.00pm Carers coffee morning maximum 10 people (It was not possible to get a suitable time slot for water aerobics)

Tuesday 11am—3.00pm Triple T Club for survivors with cookery for 3 people; 11.30 - 12.15 chair aerobics maximum 10 people (available al-so on ZOOM) 1.30-3.00pm Singles boccia matches maximum 8 peo-ple; 1.30pm—3.00pm Single pool matches maximum 8 people

Wednesday 11am—1.00pm Art therapy maximum 6 people

Thursday 1.00pm—2.00pm Pilates in large hall, maximum number 10 (available also on ZOOM)

Friday 11am—1.00pm Horticulture with An Tobar, maximum 4 people

Danielle Digney is offering to arrange flower arranging sessions for Halloween and Christmas so let Olive know if you are interested.

ARMAGH

Tuesday 10.30am—1.00pm and 2.00pm—4.30pm , maximum of 5 at each session, horticulture in Milford

Thursday 11am—1.00pm , maximum of 4 people, art therapy in Dobbin Street

Thursday 11am—1.00pm carers coffee morning, maximum 8 people in Dobbin Street coffee bar

We are sorry to be imposing limits on numbers but we must adhere to social distancing measures which we all participants must observe. Other safety precautions will apply and participants will be asked to wipe down surfaces they have touched after each session.

It is essential that you phone Olive to book your place. We hope this limited programme will go some way towards re-establishing friend-ships and routines and the committee will keep it under review and amend it when possible or necessary. As the Covid situation changes almost daily please note we will have to observe any changes in guide-lines so please make sure Aine has your mobile number.

BY SURVIVORS AND CARERS FOR SURVIVORS AND CARERS

FUNDING

Raising funds is never easy but it is particularly difficult during a pandemic and none of us envies Daryll his job but like a true trouper he has risen to the challenge with the help of some of our members. Daryll also led by example and offered to shave his hair off for BIF raising almost £1,500 in the process

Naomi O’Hare, one of our volunteers from Mayobridge, ran 5k every day during the month of July and raised just over £2,000 for BIF.

Other fund raisers recently included a donation of £600 from the Murphy family who held a family sponsored walk and family coffee morning and Sheila McBride who also held a coffee morning and raised £100. We had some success too with our grant applications and secured £2,000 from the Wesleyan Trust, £4,900 from the Community Foundation for Northern Ireland and £4,900 from the Public Health Agency’s CLEAR project.

A major success for us was securing over £2000 of sponsorship towards our Golf Challenge which included a really generous donation of £1000 from Seamus Strain and his team at Camlough Community Pharmacy as our main sponsor.

Some pictures from the very successful Golf Day at Mayobridge Golf Club are on the next page. As we go to press we do not have final results for the amount raised by the day itself but it was a very successful day and golfers praised us for our organisation. We have to thank all our sponsors, Mayobridge Golf Club, Pat Cunningham for all his golfing expertise, John McCullough for acting as a judge at the 15th hole and Noeleen Doran and Orlaith Mackin for their help.

BEFORE! AFTER! Proud mum, Noeleen and girl-friend Ciara

Proud but exhausted Naomi O’Hare Naomi & committee member Aine Darragh, Naomi’s son gets a small gift for his support

BY SURVIVORS AND CARERS FOR SURVIVORS AND CARERS

FUNDING—AND THERE’S MORE!

Damien Rooney, proprietor of RiteFitness and son of members Patrick and Bronach Rooney, is fund raising for BIF by attempting to break the Guinness World Record for the number of chin ups in 24 hours and is seen here practising for his attempt, which will be held in his gym on 25th October. The current record stands at 5094 chin ups so what an achievement this will be for Damien who says, “This is my way of giving something back to an amazing charity which does so much to support my parents. My father Patrick had a very serious brain injury a number of years ago and BIF has been a tremendous help to him and my mother. Our whole family is indebted to BIF.” Damien has set himself a target of £2500 and is already at just over £1000. Anyone wishing to contribute to this very challenging event can contact Daryll at our office or log on to gf.me/u/yqau4x

Winners of BIF T-Shirts in our recent online competition were great friend Sharon Carragher from Culloville who does our armchair aerobics and pebble art, Hannah Rose Babe from Belleeks and Lucia Morgan from Castlewellan. Congratulations to all three.

Sinead Heaney presents Daryll with a cheque for £150, the proceeds of a fund raiser a team of under 16 girls from Newry Rugby Club organised.

BY SURVIVORS AND CARERS FOR SURVIVORS AND CARERS

SOCIAL AUDIT—WHAT VALUE IS BIF TO OUR SOCIETY?

Last year Frank and Olive were trained by RCDN to put a monetary value on our work. It is easy to say we deliver programmes but if society had to pay for all we do what would it be worth? Frank and Olive attended workshops in Cookstown and had visits to BIF by independent experts who checked their work and in August were presented with a report which shows that, amazingly, our services in BIF generated over £1.4 million of social value (Wish we had this in real money!). This means that, for every pound invested in BIF, we returned £7 of value to our community. We are very proud of this and are delighted to be one of a small group of charities in N. Ireland to have been socially audited. This report will be an excellent support for us in our efforts to secure long term funding. We hope members will use it to share our success with their friends and neighbours and show them just how much value for money their fund raising can generate.

ORLA’S RECIPE OF THE MONTH

This month Orla has selected Maple Bacon Buttermilk scones. Sound fantastic! You will need 300g pack of smoked streaky bacon, 430g of self-raising flour, 2tbspmaple syrup, 1/2 teaspoon salt, 1 lightly beaten egg, 4 chopped spring onions, 240 ml buttermilk and 170g of butter.

Preheat oven to gas 6, 200 C and line a baking tray with baking paper. Fry the bacon over a medium heat until golden and crisp. Stir in syrup and fry for 1 minute. Transfer to plate to cool.

Sift flour and salt in bowl and stir in spring onions. Add butter and mix until it looks like bread-crumbs. Stir in cooled bacon and mix in buttermilk to for slightly sticky dough.

Roll out dough on a lightly flour dusted surface into a rough 22cm square about 2.5cm thick. Cut the dough into 9 squares and cut each square into two triangles and place on baking tray. Brush with egg and bake for 18-20 minutes until golden.

SHELENE’S WISE SAYING

You can never cross the ocean unless you have the courage to lose sight of the shore

BY SURVIVORS AND CARERS FOR SURVIVORS AND CARERS

FIRST ANNUAL GOLF CHALLENGE

We were delighted to hold our very first annual golf challenge at Mayobridge when 11 teams competed for a range of prizes including a whopping £5000 for a hole in one at the 15th hole.

We were absolutely blessed by the weather and by the catering at the Golf Club which was first class. Daryll even got to ferry Frank and others around in a golf buggy so that is something else he can tick off his bucket list!

Daryll pictured with two teams from Craobh Rua hurling club in Bessbrook. The guys showed they are as skilled with a golf club as a hurl and the team on the right came second overall!

Daryll in his element in the buggy! The overall winning team, Gerard White, Mark Lyndon, Eamonn Coulter and Raymond Magee

BIF Member Aidan Creamer, who plays golf one handed as a result of a stroke, with a strong team

One of Daryll’s helpers, Orlagh Mackin, tries her hand at golf.

BY SURVIVORS AND CARERS FOR SURVIVORS AND CARERS

CONGRATULATIONS

We send birthday wishes to the following members : Shelene Rooney (Hilltown), Gabriel McGi-vern (Gilford), Lucy Cloughan (Portadown), Christine Davidson (Armagh), Ally Wilson (Loughgall), John Stewart (Markethill), Philip Rafferty (Armagh) and Tony Dolaghan (Newry) who reached the Big 50.

And of course, birthday wishes to ourselves in BIF as we celebrated our 8th birthday.

Congratulations and best wishes to the following members who recently celebrated wedding anniversaries : Brian and Martina Dickson (Cabra), Charlotte and Willam Haffey, (Loughgall), Pat and Mary Cunningham (Newry), Marita and Mal Havern (Bessbrook) and Frank and Aileen Dolaghan (Newry).

Best wishes to one of our partners, Seamus Strain, of Camlough Community Pharmacy, who has moved to beautiful new premises on Hughes Retail Park, Camlough.

SYMPATHY

The committee, members, staff and volunteers send deepest sympathy to Aileen Dolaghan and Doreen Shaw on the sad loss of their sister, Joan Hayes, who passed away in August.

We also extend sympathy to volunteer Katie Smyth and her family on the sad loss of her father Pat from Poyntzpass.

MILFORD IS BLOOMING

Our members in Milford and their horticulture tutor Caroline Lennon deserve a lot of credit for the work they have done. Look at this for a crop of tomatoes. Well done to Arnold, Gerard, Pearse, Margaret, Cal, Alex and Peter for their hard work. Caroline has even installed her own irrigation system which is amazing.

Arnold from Clare, near Tandragee, Alex from Banbridge and Cal from Armagh show off the fruits of their labours.

Plenty of green fingers here.

BY SURVIVORS AND CARERS FOR SURVIVORS AND CARERS

TALENTED BIFFERS

There is no doubt that a brain injury steals a lot from anyone who has survived it but in BIF we look at our survivors as real heroes and heroines and we are inspired daily by the courage and skill many show. Here is a small selection of our achievers and their work.

These are just some of the fantastic members we have. Lots of others have skills in drawing, playing pool, singing, photography, playing musical instruments, playing drafts and Chinese checkers, writing, befriending, flower arranging, picture framing, role playing, telling jokes and stories, answering quizzes and above all, listening. Join us and discover skills you might never have seen before in yourself.

Prize winning horse riders Ryan Donaghy and Lucy Coughlan Boccia champ Tony Dolaghan

A fabulous re-creation of Narrow Water Castle by Rostrevor member Dr John McCavitt

Member Jeanie Wilson from Newry shows off an example of her work from our art therapy class

Warrenpoint resident Duana Rooney displays some of the tasty treats she cooked up un Our House