KAMLOOPS — June is Brain Injury Awareness Month.
160,000 people suffer a brain injury every year in Canada. Unlike other injuries, brain injuries are impossible to see, but their impacts on a person’s life are immense.
Kamloops woman Annie Goddard has been on a long road to recovery.
While working on the stock market in Toronto in 2002, Goddard took a taxi home, and ended up in a four car pile-up.
Goddard suffered a brain injury and suddenly found it difficult to perform everyday tasks.
“I had problems, I would be stuttering, my balance – I could, you know, toddle off or I could be in a supermarket and forget where I was and how to get out of the supermarket,” Goddard said.
In 2009 Goddard got in touch with the Kamloops Brain Injury Association.
Executive Director, David Johnson says the association works closely with survivors.
“We work with folks who have come out of the hospital and are working to get back into society and having things as normal as they can again,” Johnson said.
In many cases people who have suffered a brain injury are unable to continue on with their employment.
“So how do you adapt to a life where you’re not working anymore?” Johnson asked. “Work’s a big part of folks lives, so we try to fill that in, and find ways to make ends meet.”
Through donation and fundraising events like the annual Gur Singh Memorial Golf Tournament, the Kamloops Brain Injury Association is able to continue providing these service to brain injury survivors like Goddard.
“They have helped me get a lot closer to the person I used to be,” Goddard said. “I go out now, I’m not afraid to meet new people, and I’m laughing more, and I found the love of my life. So, yes, I might have had a brain injury, but I am definitely enjoying this stage of my life.”
As part of Brain Injury Awareness Month the Kamloops Brain Injury Association has recruited some summer students to educate young cyclists on protecting their noggins.
Falls are one of the leading causes of brain injuries. Cyclists, however, can prevent such an injury by simply wearing a helmet.
Summer Recreation Coordinator Nicole Kneale says a summer rewards program will see youth recieve prizes for wearing this important safety equipment.
“We have high expectations that they will hopefully be able to engage with us, and be really happy that they get a reward for wearing their helmet, because a lot of people don’t wear their helmet,” Kneale said. “Hopefully it will encourage their friends to wear helmets.”
In addition to asking youth to wear helmets, the summer rewards program aims to teach young cyclists the proper way to wear them.
“It’s important that your helmet fits you properly, or else it’s not going to protect you as well,” said Summer Recreation Coordinator Taylor Matson. “How you can check that it fits, is you should only be able to put one finger under your chin strap, two fingers between your eyebrows and the top of the helmet, and (the straps) should make a ‘v’ around your ear, and then it should be snug on your head. Not so snug that it gives you a headache, but it shouldn’t be able to flop around.”
