In April 2025 I am running the London Landmarks Half Marathon to raise money and awareness for SameYou - a charity working to develop better support for brain injury survivors. 🧡

I'm running for SameYou as their ethos is really important to me. In 2021, I had a major trauma accident, resulting in a severe traumatic brain injury. Life post injury has been a complex journey, as it is for many other brain injury survivors, and I really want to help other people in the same position as I was.

After my accident, I woke up from an induced coma and life was completely different. It was a really scary time - I couldn't speak, couldn't recognise people or my surroundings, and struggled to make sense of everything that had happened. I had no memory of an accident and an entirely new brain. In the months after leaving hospital, I began learning to live with my brain injury, but long term problems started to become more apparent. I really needed medical support, and this turned out really difficult to access. Eventually, I was fortunate enough to receive some lifechanging rehabilitation, but for many people this does not happen.

There is a huge lack of resources and clinical guidelines providing rehabilitation to brain injury survivors. 1 in 3 people will face brain injury in their life, whether that from an accident, a tumour, a stroke, or something else - SameYou improves support for brain injury survivors through increasing access to rehabilitation and mental health services: essential components of recovery.

Alongside my own brain injury, I've also had experience of brain injury through my brother, Ben, who in 2017 underwent treatment for high grade brain cancer, resulting in an acquired brain injury. While the silver lining of this is that we can support and understand each other really well, we have also seen firsthand how much professional support is needed to make a good recovery, no matter the cause of the injury.

The personal experiences I've had with brain injury mean I am so passionate about this cause, and so I am running to raise some vital funds and awareness - if you're able to support me at all I would be extremely grateful! 🧡

Also - here is the link to the SameYou website if you want to read more about what they do 🙂 https://www.sameyou.org/about_us