‘Tony’s love of cycling never left him’
Tony Taylor has always been passionate about cycling and used to regularly compete in races. After his racing days, he worked behind the scenes organising races and acting as an official. According to his wife, Rita, this love of cycling is the one memory he retained after he was knocked off his bike and left with a serious brain injury.
It was March 1996 when the lives of Tony and Rita were changed forever. The couple had just moved to Somerset where Tony was to run a post office. Keen to explore his new village, Tony decided to go for a bike ride three weeks after moving in. Tony set out wearing high-visibility clothing and his helmet and all was well.
And then Rita received the phone call.
Rita was asked to come to Yeovil Hospital as soon as possible as Tony was 'rather poorly'. Naturally, Rita was very frightened and confused as to what had happened and how her husband was. She didn't even know how to get to the hospital as she hadn't yet learned her way around.
When she did arrive, Rita immediately learned that Tony was more than just poorly. A CT scan had revealed that Tony had suffered a fractured skull. He was immediately transferred to a specialist unit at Frenchay Hospital in Bristol where he was placed in intensive care.
"Tony was really confused when I first saw him," said Rita. "He recognised me, which was a relief, but he didn't understand where he was or what had happened."
It eventually transpired that a female driver, possibly distracted by her child in the back seat, had hit Tony's bike at 42mph from behind - sending him over the bonnet of the car and through the windscreen.
Tony's brain injury had left him with a number of cognitive and physical problems. His short-term memory was so poor that he couldn't remember what he'd said five minutes previously, while in Rita's words he couldn't think straight or carry on a conversation. He also lost all peripheral vision and is now registered as being blind. Despite this, Tony was discharged home with no follow-up help or support of any kind.
"At the time, I knew nothing about brain injury and I wasn't told what to expect or how to cope," said Rita. "I went to our local GP, but he couldn't understand what the problem was. At this point, I thought we were well and truly on our own.
"As Tony could no longer run the post office, we were forced to sell and move again - this time to Dorset. It was here that we first encountered Headway and life began to improve. Suddenly, we'd found people who understood what we were going through.
"Tony began attending Headway Dorset and thoroughly enjoyed every visit. We returned to the Yeovil district a few years later and he then began to attend the new Headway Somerset branch in the town.
"It was there that he was encouraged to write about his crash and the aftermath, or at least as much as he could remember. It was at this point Tony really began to believe in himself again.
"While Tony's short-term memory remained very poor, his memory of all things cycling remained strong. He could recall the results of races from years gone by as if they had only just happened.
"A friend from Yeovil Cycling Club suggested to Tony that he write an article on cycle racing history for the club's magazine. This was a challenge Tony relished. Using a special computer with large letters on the keyboard and a programme called Jaws that reads everything on the screen to him, Tony drafted 36 articles for the magazine over a nine year period. He had many old pictures and photos and Cycling Weekly Magazine sent him a disc of old photos to use.
When the articles came to a natural conclusion, Tony and Rita decided it would be good to collate them all and publish them in book form. Previously, Tony had published three books on local history and remembered how to go about getting a book underway. In early 2011 Pedaller Talk was published and it's currently being sold in a local book shop and a cycling shop, while it's also available from Cycling Weekly, the country's leading cycling magazine.
The book starts with the history of the bike, the sport in its early days and goes on to illustrate the problems road racing experienced in this country even though it was almost a way of life in mainland Europe. There are chapters on the Tours of Britain and other important races in this country, while Tony has also written about areas that have produced the best cycle racers.
"Just seeing the finished book has given Tony much self esteem. In many ways producing this book has helped Tony come to terms with the fact that because of the damage to his eyesight he will never be able to ride again, which to him is a terrible effect of the crash and brain injury."