Story
On 10 March, I experienced a sickening headache, suddenly and without warning. 12% of people who have such headaches die before reaching medical care. Doctors call it a subarachnoid haemorrhage, and know how to help the 8,500 affected in the UK each year.
But there’s a bigger killer, lurking like an earthquake aftershock, called cerebral vasospasm. Doctors could do a lot to help the 3,400 in the UK who die in hospital each year and the 1,300 who become dependent on care, if they could develop a vasospasm early warning system.
The Wessex Neuorological Centre, at Southampton Hospital where I went, have made a very promising start at developing one. It could help thousands all over the world, but the Centre needs funds to continue making progress, and can use them immediately.
Although in the lucky 15% who recover completely without surgery, I need to pace myself for a while. So please bear with me if all I do is ask you to support this project.
Making a debit/credit card donation here is quick and simple. If you are a UK tax payer, please also complete the Gift Aid form so that the Centre gets 28% extra, quickly.
********* GREAT NEWS *********
I’m delighted to announce that, as a result of generous donations made to this and another Justgiving page raising funds for this research, and substantial cheque donations received directly by the charity, the target needed to fund this vital research has now been achieved. I’m sure you’ll agree that this is tremendous news! Work on the project will commence before the end of the year and is expected to take around a year to complete.
However, the Smile4Rich Appeal has simultaneously been raising funds to equip the Wessex Neurological Centre with a Paediatric Video-Telemetry Suite. Once built, this facility will be used to assess children with severe Epilepsy (typically suffering up to 50 seizures per day!) for life-changing corrective surgery which can quite literally cure their condition. Not only will this facility give these children the chance to live a life that most take for granted, but it will also allow data to be gathered which will further the understanding of a condition that affects around 1 in 200 children, and up to 1 in 50 of the population as a whole. If you continue to make a donation to this appeal, your support will speed the day when this facility can be operational.
Thank you again for your support.
Geoffrey Mann