First published on Thursday 04 December 2003:
We'll give something back
by Gareth Lewis
His story touched the hearts of thousands of people across Southampton and now Wayne Howard and his family are looking to give something in return. The motorbike accident victim was treated at a top German clinic thanks to the generosity of locals and now a trust has been set up in his name to help other brain injury victims...
AS WAYNE Howard crosses the floor of his physiotherapist's room and dreams of one day walking unaided, it is easy to forget how those steps are just the latest in a hard-fought journey.
One year ago, Wayne was fighting for his future in a renowned German clinic - a situation that was itself once just an impossible dream.
His arrival at the Schmieder Clinic was thanks to the spirit of Daily Echo readers who dug deep into their pockets to raise £30,000 to send him there.
The Millbrook father of three desperately needed readers' help after suffering horrendous injuries in a near-fatal motorcycle accident on Sunday, August 20, 2000.
Until that crash he was known as a martial arts-loving Manx GP racer. But the accident meant his right leg had to be amputated. Far more serious, however, was the brain damage he suffered, which left him sometimes unable to recognise his three boys or partner Tracy Goodwin.
The Porlock Road family was rocked by the accident and the bleak future it left them. Tracy remembers: "When Wayne first had his accident, we didn't have anybody to turn to or to talk to. There was no one to say where we go from here. "Then we heard about the Schmieder Clinic and saw the positive effects. We thought that was where Wayne had to go and made the effort to raise funds and all the people of Southampton helped."
The clinic was an instant success and immediately started to make an impact on Wayne's quality of life. Tracy said: "In Germany they said the medication he had been put on in Britain was killing him slowly and they took him off it. If we had stayed here he would have been left on it and it wasn't even the right medication for him. I just wasn't aware there were options and it made such a difference."
The new drugs stopped his fits and they started to get more of the old Wayne back. He was given intensive physiotherapy and a prosthetic leg and, most importantly of all, he started to get plenty of exercise and now the whole family feels the benefit.
"It has done what we hoped it would do and that's improve his quality of life a lot," says Tracy. "He's more alert and he's more active, he has his prosthesis now and the physiotherapist is walking him across the floor only supporting him with his arms. There are also no fits now.
"His memory is getting better as well and he only forgets things when he's extremely tired. Late at night he sometimes says to me `Who are you?' but we just did our Christmas list and he reeled off the names of all the family and he couldn't have done that before.
"Now there's a long-term future - there wasn't before."
Everyday life has also settled down a bit "Family life is a bit more organised. It was very stressful in the early days, very chaotic emotionally. It was hard but as you go on you learn to deal with it. Emotionally you have to shut down now and again but the kids have got used to it and now I know what I am doing."
This gruelling process has taught Tracy and the rest of the family a lot and now she hopes her experience can help other families.
She said: "Initially it seemed that people were saying `This is your life now. This is what it is going to be like'. That wasn't what we wanted to hear. We wanted to know what the options were and we were offered none, nothing positive anyway
"The approach to brain injury and paralysis is totally negative over here. These people are being left for their muscle to waste away and they are not being exercised in any way and that is vital for everything. Because the long-term cases are expensive, they won't put the effort in.
"If we had gone along with what we were told, Wayne would never have been able to stand. It is only going to Germany that has helped. "There's a lot of people out there that need help and I can offer the benefit of my experience, which is quite wide."
The family has founded the Wayne Howard Trust to help brain injury sufferers and their families get the best care. "Initially the trust will provide information but later down the line we want to go bigger and we want to start a clinic over here. I think it's disgusting we don't have one," said Tracy.
Meanwhile, the work for Wayne goes on, one step at a time. "The aim is to get Wayne to walk by himself one day," says Tracy. "You have to try. If we hadn't tried any of this, just think of the wasted potential. How many more people are having their potential wasted?"
The
Wayne Howard Trust gets a glittering launch at a fundraising Christmas Song
and Dance Extravaganza.
Featuring everything from salsa and hip hop to barber shop and the Regents Park Girls' School Choir, as well as a raffle and buffet, the event will launch the charity with a bang.
It takes place at the Turner Sims Concert Hall on Friday, December 19. Tickets priced £9.50 or £7.50 for concessions, are available on 023 8059 5151. For more details on the trust visit: www.waynehowardtrust.co.uk