A local support group who meet every other Monday at St Peter’s Church are looking to raise additional awareness of a communication disability often as a result of a stroke or head injury.
Steve Brine MP, joined by Hampshire County and Winchester City Councillor Jan Warwick, dropped into a meeting of the group to hear more about Aphasia, as well as see the group in action.
Aphasia is caused by damage to the language centres of the brain, and may be down to a stroke, head injury, brain tumour or other neurological illness. It makes it difficult to read, write or speak and affects people differently.
The Winchester and Chandler’s Ford MP said after his visit; “It was really powerful, and moving, meeting members of the group and hearing their stories as well as their ongoing challenges living with communication difficulties. The support they offer to each other was plain to see and they’ve me some homework follow-up with Minister, the local NHS Trust, around how public services communicate with them.
“I am passionate about the prevention agenda, going back to my time as a health Minister, and would like to see health systems everywhere take seriously practical things that can really help with stroke incidence such as salt reduction strategies.”
Councillor Warwick added; “It was a pleasure to meet members of the local Say Aphasia group this week. Group members did an excellent job of highlighting areas where local authorities could do more to help particularly with better communication and access to support.”
Lloyd Brammer, one of the attendees and who invited the MP, said; “It all started about 5 years when I invited my stroke friends to my home for afternoon coffee-chats with a lots of laughter, where friendship grew and grew into this fantastic network we have today.”
Jez Hodgkinson, who runs the Winchester and Southampton Say Aphasia group alongside Lloyd, explained; “Awareness around Aphasia is really low and that can often be really unhelpful to people who struggle with it. By having the group as a place to talk to others in the same boat as you is so useful.”
The group is open to all and meetings are filled with chatting, quizzes and often trips to all kinds of places. More can be found here https://www.sayaphasia.org/winchester
Pictured; Steve Brine MP and Councillor Jan Warwick with members of the Winchester Say Aphasia group.
