Prior to her accident Emma (11 years old) was a confident, independent girl, with an active social life. She had just started high school and was enjoying it. She did well academically and enjoyed sports.

In November 2018, Emma was involved in a Road Traffic Collision (RTC). She was crossing the road when she was hit by a moving vehicle. Emma was taken to the Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital for treatment where she was an inpatient for 5 weeks. She had sustained multiple skull fractures, a CSF leak, blood from her ear and a broken neck.

Emma was a normal girl when her and her family’s life was changed forever.  Stories like Emma’s are all too frequent and once the clinicians have done their work, families are left worrying about the future.  The initial shock of what’s happened is likely to have a significant impact on the family, and then there are all the practical things to think about not to mention questions about what the future may hold.

Stories like Emma’s  are frequently not talked about and there is no way of knowing who can help and if there is any help available – what it can do to make things better?

Child Brain Injury Trust (CBIT), have been supporting the family since the beginning of their journey and was the friendly familiar face that helped the child and family with the transition from hospital to home. Offering practical and emotional support to the whole family.   

We need to tell the story, so that others may learn what support and help is there and how they can access it.   We need to tell the story so that families like Emma’s know where to turn to when there is seems like there is nobody to help.  We need to tell the story so that we can continue to support families like Emma’s .  There are so many reasons to ‘tell the story’.

If you are affected by childhood acquired brain injury (ABI) or if you want to know how the Child Brain Injury Trust supports anyone affected by ABI then pop over to our stories page here where you can read all about Emma and other children who have received support from us.

We will be adding to our stories throughout the year so that we can continue to raise awareness and standards of support for all families affected by childhood ABI.  We welcome your stories too and would love you to share them with us so that we can build our ‘Book of Stories’ for everyone.

Our website has lots of information about the work we do and the support we offer through our Brain Injury Support Service. You can also read about the training we provide to professionals who want to help us create a world where brain injury is recognised, talked about positively and has resources in place to help every child who has a brain injury reach their potential.

Thank you to the Emma, Henry, Archie, Emily, Jake and Alfie who have already shared their story with us and to the wonderful work of our Brain Injury Coordinators who are based around the UK working in hospitals, schools and in the community.

Lisa Turan

CEO