News and Events Newsletters December Newsletter HAPPY CHRISTMAS!! SANTA FUN RUN To kick things off, we want to say a MASSIVE thank you to the team at Say Aphasia Skipton for organising their online fundraising. They raised an amazing £435! Incredible! "This year, due to the pandemic, the Rotary Club of Skipton Craven organised a VIRTUAL Santa Fun Run which took place on 12th and 13th December 2020. This year participants could run, walk, cycle their own 5km route and by doing so raise money for local charities, in particular Manorlands. So I thought I would give it a go and do a local walk and raise some money for the Say Aphasia charity. Two of our friends agreed to join me (socially distanced) and Mark came along for part of the route to cheer us on. We were suitably festively dressed (even Mark's walker!). It was certainly dull and damp, a typical December morning but we set off with a spring in our step at 8.30am, accompanied by a very cute dog in a Santa coat and heartened by the fact that we had already raised £300 for the Say Aphasia charity thanks to the massive generosity of our friends and family. People we met en route seemed to enjoy seeing the flash of colour in our Santa hats and the fresh air was invigorating. Luckily the rain held off and the walk went well. On the way Mark bumped into his cousin who he hadn't seen for years! To have some human interaction meant the world to us and knowing that the funds we have raised will help the Say Aphasia charity continue its online support for people with aphasia cemented today as one of the best days of 2020 for me!! Thank you to everyone who has been so supportive and encouraging of our walk and contributed to the fundraising. You are all stars!!! Have a lovely Christmas and we wish you all the very best for 2021! Love from Caroline and Mark xx" We are hugely grateful for their efforts. And the money raised will help Say Aphasia continue to support people with aphasia across the UK. To keep up to date with Say Aphasia Skipton, follow them on facebook "Thank You to every one who has supported / encouraged and contributed to our lovely SAY APHASIA charity.... And thank you to 'The Great Skipton Santa Fun Run 5k VIRTUAL' weekend peeps and our BRILL TEAM Say Aphasia Skipton peeps. Brill weekend, freezing, but brill!" - Caroline and Mark. Mini Interviews with Say Aphasia Members Mark Chappell from our Skipton group has spent some time having a chat with Say Aphasia members about themselves and their aphasia. To watch these wonderful videos click here MINI INTERVIEWS Do you have aphasia? Want to be a Say Aphasia Member and be part of our community? CLICK HERE TO BECOME A MEMBER Our top fundraising super star This month Howard Mitchell has raised a whopping £437! Thank you so much! Howard has attended our drop in groups in burgess hill before the pandemic. He had an innovative idea to raise money for Say Aphasia by asking for donations for his beautiful garden Christmas light display! Aphasia Alliance Colin attended his first online meeting with the Aphasia Alliance last month. Colin says it was interesting to hear about what the other aphasia charities had been doing. To summerise the meeting, all charities have successfully moved online, and offer online group chats via Zoom. Each charity found that more people were attending these online groups compared to face to face groups. What is aphasia alliance? The Aphasia Alliance is a coalition of key organisations from all over the UK that work in the field of aphasia. The Aphasia Alliance is not an organisation, but an informal union between different organisations that share a common purpose – to improve the lives of, and support, people with aphasia and their families. What do they do? The purpose of the Aphasia Alliance is: to maintain communication, good relationships and collaboration between organisations focused on Aphasia to keep each other informed to support and encourage one another to try to ensure that work is not replicated to exchange ideas to make the most of resources available to highlight shared priorities and when appropriate to speak with one voice to meet twice a year UCL World Stroke Day Forum Colin and Firle spoke about their project The Art of Conversation with Aphasia at this event in October and their workshop sold out! What is 'The Art of Conversation with Aphasia?' A collaboration between De La Warr Pavilion in Bexhill, University College London (UCL), Say Aphasia and artist Nikki Hafter. This is a creative wellbeing research project which aims to embed culture and creativity into the lives of people with aphasia. As well as enhance wellbeing, reduce loneliness and increase confidence. Six online sessions will be offered to a small group of people with aphasia and their conversation partners (a friend or relative who they see regularly), and will continue until late January 2021. The Art of Conversation with Aphasia session 3 explored 'when things go wrong' in conversation. They also made collages about their lives in lockdown - this collage by group member Steve. We will hear more from Firle in the next newsletter about the success of the project. Zoom Zoom Zoom ZOOM- virtual ‘drop in’ support groups have been a real success. Monday - Woodingdean virtual ‘drop in’ is a smaller group with regular attendeesfrom the residents of the Woodingdean area of Brighton. Tuesday and Wednesday - one to one befriending. This is run by Say Aphasia Peer Leaders. Befriender requests are matched via the website. Befriending takes place over the phone or via zoom. You can register for this service here. Thursday- Ladies and SALT Surrey small group. Friday- UK drop in. Popular group attended by people with aphasia from across the UK. 20-25 members attend weekly. This group has evolved and has now has breakout rooms to allow everyone an opportunity to talk, and also ‘words of the week’ created by Speech and Therapists, this is a resource of current news stories which has been simplified to make them more accessible to people with aphasia. Online Speech Therapy " ...Speech and Language Therapy, that your charity so kindly funded. It was a huge help and has allowed mum to improve her communication skills and it is something I will continue to work on with her. " If you know someone who has been discharged from hospital in the last 3 months and cannot get speech therapy, please refer them to us. We offer speech therapy for people who are newly diagnosed with aphasia and who cannot access speech therapy via the NHS. Click here to apply Brighton Half Marathon June 2021 There is now more time to train for the Brighton Half Marathon!! So come and join us! SIGN UP HERE! WE NEED YOU! We need 50 people!! Please help us, we promise you will love it! Once you have filled out the form on the Say Aphasia website, you will then receive an email from the Brighton Half Marathon with a link to officially book a place on their website. (Not sure why the Brighton Half Marathon have made the registration process a bit tedious this year, but we've tried to make it easy our end). Once registration is complete, you can start training and fundraising! And guess what, you can create your fundraising page directly on the Say Aphasia website! Click here to create your fundraising page! thank you To our friends, family and supporters, we want to say thank you. Without your donations, we would not be able to support people with aphasia. Support which is needed now more than ever, to help people with aphasia through the pandemic. Manage Cookie Preferences