See the Hidden Me: Christine's story

We are still people, and we are still us

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As part of Headway's See the Hidden Me campaign, Christine shares her experience of living with the hidden effects of brain injury.

“Whilst I came to the end of my brain tumour journey when I got discharged, it was the start of another journey dealing with the effects of the brain injury it left behind. It affects my memory, I get neuro fatigue, I do still slur and stutter occasionally - although it’s not as bad as it was - and I also get very irate. I think that’s the most frustrating side effect because I know it affects other people, and that’s very hard.

“It’s also very difficult with expectation that now my brain tumour has gone, I am now ‘better’.

“It took a long time for me to realise that I will never be better. That’s ok. I’m fine with that now. But you can see some people really struggle with that. They’ll ask, ‘well when will you be better?’, ‘Oh, are you really still going to Headway? Do you really still need that?’

“Well, yes. In the politest of ways, I am never going to be better.

But we are still people, and we are still us. We have changed, and may look the same, but we are still the same people. Please bear with us.

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See the hidden me

'See the hidden me' raises awareness and understanding of the often misunderstood symptoms of a brain injury, and work to alleviate the challenges, and frustrations, survivors face.

Find out more

New research shows more than three quarters of brain injury survivors struggle every day d...

See the Hidden Me study finds that 76% of brain injury survivors experience problems on a daily basis because of the hidden, and often misunderstood nature of brain injury.

Find out more

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Headway - the brain injury association is registered with the Charity Commission for England and Wales (Charity no. 1025852) and the Office of the Scottish Regulator (Charity no. SC 039992). Headway is a company limited by guarantee, registered in England no. 2346893.