WIREDGOV

A Belfast-based charity that is a lifeline to people affected by brain injury is one of 108 groups in Northern Ireland sharing in a grants windfall of £895,132 from the Big Lottery Fund’s Awards for All programme.

A full list of projects to be awarded is available here

The small grants programme has awarded £10,000 to Brain Injury Matters for a project that will offer counselling support to people affected by brain injury in Belfast. Relatives will also receive counselling to help them cope better.

Awards for All offers community, voluntary and statutory groups the chance to apply for small grants of between £500 and £10,000 that will have a big impact on local communities and the lives of people most in need.

Brain Injury Matters will use the grant to offer five more weekly one-to-one counselling sessions to people affected by brain injury. Fiona McCabe, chief executive of Brain Injury Matters said the funding will allow them to offer crucial support to more people who desperately need it.

“Because of the complex potential behavioural, emotional, cognitive and physical problems after sustaining a brain injury, many survivors experience anxiety, stress, depression and generally poorer mental health as they come to adapt to living with a lifelong disability,” she said.

“The counselling service helps people recover emotionally by allowing them to develop better coping mechanisms, become more resilient and enabling them to take back control of their lives. The counsellor helps them to realise their full potential and recognise the possibilities in their life after brain injury.

“This funding through Awards for All will be a real boost to our work and will help us to offer this kind of invaluable support to even more people in Northern Ireland.”

Julie Wilson from Co Antrim suffered a devastating brain haemorrhage in 2011. She is still living with the consequences

“I had been experiencing bad headaches, falling asleep during the day and was having difficulty with my words and writing. Then a severe headache that developed on the way home from work one Friday kept me in bed all weekend. I eventually went to my GP on the Wednesday who sent me immediately to hospital,” said Julie.

It was just a couple of weeks before Christmas in December 2011 and Julie had suffered a burst brain aneurysm. In the challenging months that followed she tried to return to her old job in senior management with a major outsourcing company - but it wasn’t working.

“Every brain injury is different and mine had left me with cognitive impairment and extreme fatigue. I come across as the same person but I am not. When I went back to work I couldn’t cope - on a bad day I couldn’t even work a photocopier. I was getting into brain freeze situations and to be honest I was in total meltdown,” Julie said.

“My doctor referred me to Brain Injury Matters in October 2013 and they arranged for me to see a councillor and a psychologist week about. They helped me through talking and listening and practical things which enable me to cope better with the challenges. They have worked with me to put together a plan of where I want to get to and they have helped me be more realistic about where that is.

“Living with a brain injury is like going through a bereavement of the person you used to be and getting to know the person you now are. I had always been a ‘sorter-outer’ – I was my parents’ carer, for instance, but I wasn’t able to do that anymore. When I’d left the hospital I hadn’t even been able to shower myself.

“I always remember how far I’ve come and I’m so grateful for that. Brain Injury Matters have helped me get back into work, though it’s a struggle, and back into my own house, which was a huge step. Without them I don’t know where I’d have ended up – I don’t even want to think about it. I am also lucky to have supportive family, friends and colleagues.”

Joanne McDowell, Big Lottery Fund NI Director, said: “The Big Lottery Fund’s NI Awards for All programme funds health, education, environment and community projects that help people bring about positive change in their lives, improve health and well-being, develop skills and create safer communities.                                                      
                                                                                                              
“The application process is simple and accessible and shall remain so, making it easy for applicants to successfully apply for small pots of funding that can have such a big impact on local communities and lives.”

Application forms and guidance notes are available to download atwww.biglotteryfund.org.uk. For more details call us on 028 9055 1455, or e-mail us atenquiries.ni@biglotteryfund.org.uk

For media enquiries, contact Lucy Gollogly at the Big Lottery Fund Press Office on 028 90 551 432
Out of hours media contact: 07580811135
Website: http://www.biglotteryfund.org.uk/northernireland 
Twitter: @BIGNIonline
Facebook: www.facebook.com/BigLotteryFundNI

Notes to editors

• The Big Lottery Fund is responsible for giving out 40% of the money raised by the National Lottery.
• The Fund is committed to bringing real improvements to communities and the lives of people most in need and has been rolling out grants to health, education, environment and charitable causes across the UK. Since its inception in 2004 it has awarded close to £6bn.
• In the year ending 31 March 2013, 28% of total National Lottery revenue was awarded to projects. Since the National Lottery began in 1994, £31 billion has been raised and more than 400,000 grants awarded.