Brain injury survivor pens letter to younger self

A woman who suffered life-changing injuries after being hit by a car when she was a child has written a letter to her younger self as part of a charity campaign.

Amy Stevenson, from Leeds, suffered a traumatic brain injury aged eight and was temporarily paralysed following the crash in 1992.

Now 40, she has penned a letter to herself in her teenage years, a stage in her life which she said was particularly difficult, as part of charity Day One Trauma Support’s Major Trauma Awareness Week.

Ms Stevenson, who now volunteers with the charity supporting others who have suffered major trauma, said: "I look back and think of how hard it was at that time as a teenager."

"It was quite daunting at the time, when you are just starting out and you don't know that life is going to be like," she said.

Ms Stevenson was 22 when she walked unaided for the first time following the crash and she went on to work and have three children.

She told BBC Radio Leeds that learning to live with her injuries had made her want to help others in a similar position through the Day One charity.

In her letter to her younger self, she wrote: "You feel like you don't belong and often question your worth.

"Will I ever have a ‘normal’ life, be in a relationship, get married, have children, find a job, own a house that I can upkeep with dogs that I can walk?"

She said that as a teenager her worries included "fitting in and having friends and people liking me with my disability".

"They are not nice feelings, so that was the hardest time," Ms Stevenson added.

Lucy Nixon, CEO of Leeds-based Day One, said the aim of the campaign was to "show how peer support can give hope to people following these catastrophic injuries".

She said someone was admitted to a major trauma centre every 20 minutes in the UK.

Ms Nixon said the themes of the letters people had written to themselves had included isolation, fear and questions over how long recovery could take.

"You can't fix someone's bones. You also need to give them hope and share the kind of support around recovery that comes with lived experiences. That's really how the charity started," she said.

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