May 2018

Its Stroke Awareness Month Again and this year we have a few volunteers, namely Damon, Marc & Luke undertaking a 190 mile bike journey from Stockport (New Mills) to Wembley Stadium for the FA CUP Final between Manchester United and Chelsea.

Please support the push bike ride to Wembley on 18th May 2018 by texting
SESI07 then the amount £1 – £10 to 70070 or via https://www.justgiving.com/campaigns/charity/stoke-information/onhisbike

Other things we have been upto   Thank you to Damon, Luke & Marc who completed the 190 mile bike ride to Wembley in 23 hours 33 minutes and had a great experience by all accounts and Damon saw his beloved Chelsea lift the cup.   5 days left on the just giving page and Id love the figure to reflect their fantastic efforts.   Well done chaps and thank you so much……

Which brings me to let you all know why I started StrokeInformation, to provide the help, support, guidance and above all else HOPE to others impacted by Stroke #WeCareBecauseWeveBeenThere…   True story from this very month of May 2018……. Names have been changed to protect the parties involved, earlier in May I was contacted by a survivor, Mrs Houston, who’s blue badge was due to expire on the 11th May 2018 and she asked me to help her get a new one, so I sent off the relevant paperwork to her local authority and hadn’t heard anything in over 2 weeks, so I called them on behalf of Mrs Houston and enquired as to the whereabouts of the badge……to which the reply I got back, Dear StrokeInformation, thank you for enquiring over the renewal of Mrs Houston’s blue badge, however we are unable to process it because we need the points page of her latest PIP award.    I replied that I had sent a letter from the benefits department which states that she is entitled to the enhanced rate of mobility (i.e 12 points, even standard is 10 points) to which they replied yes but unless we see a piece of paper that says Mrs Houston has 10 points or more we cannot process it.

I guess as a stroke survivor myself, you have 2 choices, 1) to give up 2) Stand up for the forgotten voices in our community (Stroke world) so I fought back and said the letter states from a government source that Mrs Houston is entitled to the ENHANCED rate…i.e at least 12 points, then she automatically qualifies for the renewal and the paperwork submitted verifies legally that she is entitled to the badge.    The lady at the local authority said that she doesnt make the rules but they have been informed that unless they see the actual points, they cant issue the blue badge.  Please rearrange these words as you see fit:-  much as chocolate use fire guard as a……….  so I got on to the Chief Exec of the local authority with scanned copies of the correspondence and asked if common sense could prevail, guess what after a phone call later to the blue badge team they said that as a one off, they would issue it in this case but for the record they cannot and will not do this again.   I thanked the lady for letting her common sense prevail and rang Mrs Houston and informed to which she was absolutely grateful for our input as after all #WeCareBecauseWeveBeenThere    – others dont get this and concentrate on raising massive amounts for their charity to run which I get but surely there has to be time for a bit of a change??   Someone once used #ANewEraForStroke…….. https://www.change.org/p/england-ce-nhs-net-freedom-of-choice?recruiter=877437482&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=facebook_link&utm_campaign=share_for_starters_page       Hmmmm    #GetInvolved