Tim Richens

Tim Richens was on a “normal night out at the darts” one Thursday evening, when he fell out of a speeding car that was moonlighting as a taxi.  He fell onto his head and sustained a severe brain injury that ended his life as he knew it.

“This isn’t the life I had before,” said Tim.  “I was in the wrong place at the wrong time and my night out led to days in a coma, weeks in hospital and years of recovery."

Initially, the doctors prepared Tim’s family for the worst, but after more than seven days in an induced coma and several more weeks in hospital, Tim went home. He and his family simply assumed that he was better, and life would carry on as before. 

No one had ever told me about brain injury, so I wasn’t ready for it.

Tim went back to his busy schedule of running his own property sales business, and coaching football, but his assumption of resuming ‘normal’ life was “very, very wrong” and within twelve months he had given up everything and admitted that he was not coping. 

Tim realised that the biggest challenge he faced was fitting back into society.  He wrestled with the common attitudes of past generations to ’just get on with things’ and struggled to accept that some illnesses and disabilities were not visible.  He could walk, he could see and hear, and he could drive, but he did have a brain injury, and it wasn’t going to go away. 

At one point Tim felt suicidal, but the fact the doctors had confirmed that he had died for a time kept his focus on wanting to live.  Tim’s friend encouraged him to set something up using his experiences and now Tim offers public speaking and presentations sharing his first-hand account of his brain injury to educate professionals, inspire survivors and reassure their family and friends. 

“My presentation is an honest account of my brain injury recovery, rehabilitation and what life looks like now for me post injury.”

Tim recently sat in the ‘Headway hot seat’ to share his story.  Click on the video below to watch the interview.

For more information about Tim, visit his website at www.regainthebrain.co.uk