3 MINUTES WITH PAM ASHCROFT - A LIFE ALTERING MOMENT
One of our team members, Pamela Ashcroft, suffered life-changing injuries when she was hit by a car whilst crossing the road to work. Here, she shares how she’s battled with anxiety, panic attacks, memory loss, speech impediments, cerebral fatigue and surgeries to win back her mental and physical health.
It’s now been six years since I obtained a brain injury from a serious car accident. In late August 2017, I was walking to work when I was unexpectedly hit by a car and sustained a traumatic brain injury. I was airlifted to hospital where doctors did not know if I was going to survive the night or even walk or talk again. I sustained bleeding to the left side of my brain which placed me in the neuro-rehabilitation ward. Here I was supported by a neuro-rehabilitation team who taught me how to use my right hand and eventually how to walk again.
In addition, I had received damage to my eye muscles, and I had broken my knee which left me bed-ridden for a month in hospital. I began to practice walking which took me from a wheelchair to a walking frame to a walking stick. While practicing my walking in hospital I noticed I developed severe panic attacks. After five months I was discharged from hospital.
Around this time my panic attacks continued to paralyse me when I walked. When I was at my worst, I couldn’t even leave my home independently or walk around my house for fear of falling. Thus, my panic attacks needed to be managed through sessions with my neuropsychologist. In these sessions I overcame my panic attacks to the point where I could independently catch the underground without experiencing anxiety. Once I had got the panic attacks under control, I was determined to return to work.
To do so, I had to do what I know best, PR! I contacted Headway, a brain injury charity where I wrote an article about my experience overcoming severe panic attacks. As a direct result, I was invited back to work at Tin Man to fulfil my previous role.
Upon my return to Tin Man I wanted to continue to challenge my growth professionally and still be treated just like any other employee. As I began to reacquaint myself with the work, my workload included pitching to journalists via media lists and Response Source. Later, I began to attend media meets accompanied by a colleague and continued to have further successes in my career.
Despite these successes, I continued to struggle with double vision. This required me to undergo two separate surgeries in a three-week span to improve my vision which set me up for continued growth at Tin Man.
I’m happy to report that my recovery continues; I’m still pitching to journalists which I love and I’m also broadening my skills and working with my line manager on my personal development plan attending training sessions and going out to meet journalists in person, not just over the phone! I’m a part of the mental health and wellbeing taskforce at Tin Man, bringing my own experiences to our policies and processes.
I have made it this far on my own and now with the support of an Occupational Therapist, I’m really excited as I’m ready to go to the next level. What I hope to achieve from my OT sessions is to develop strategies such as fatigue management to minimise the impact of my brain injury.