Jan and Michaela

Jan

Michaela

Michaela and Jan met a few years ago when they both worked as consultants for PwC.
Jan had a brain haemorrhage on 13 September 2010 which caused a severe stroke that has left her paralysed on her left side. Michaela followed Jan's facebook postings made when she was in hospital and has followed and supported Jan's continuing journey of recovery since. Encouraged by Ali of  Seal Personal Training, Michaela and Jan have entered the British Indoor Rowing Championships due on 25 March 2012, in Nottingham tohelp raise funds to buy equipment, not funded by NHS, to further aid Jan's ongoing recovery with surplus monies shared between the Charity "Different Strokes"   and to purchase physiotherapy equipment for the Royal Leamington Spa Rehabilitation Hospital where Jan spent 3 months as an in-patient. Rob Smith of Active Hands has kindly donated a velcro glove that helps Jan's left hand to grip the rower.
17 months post-stroke,  Jan can walk, with difficulty and needs a footsplint and walking stick, but she also continues to need care and support (provided through adult social services)  to enable her to live at home with her 13 yr old daughter. Jan is working hard on her recovery so she can once again live independently and return to work. Your support and donations will enable Jan to buy the eqipment and associated training not funded by NHS that she needs to recover movement and hopefully some function in her arm as well as contributing to the on-going work of the RLS Rehabilitation Hospital and Different Strokes. I the past month alone  we have raised just over £1000.00, which is a fantastic start towards our target of £3,500.
 Please support us and help us to reach our goal by donating via  paypal.

Michaela in training

Jan in training

Our thanks and appreciation

Michaela and Jan

Donald's blog

If you are interested in learning more about my journey, do read Donald Clark's blog:

http://donaldclarkplanb.blogspot.com/2011/10/facebook-saved-my-sanity-remarkable.html

My book will be published later this year

Jan

Our targets

Our target is to raise £3500.00 which will  enable me to buy suitable devices and associated training to help me regain movement and function in my left hand.

All surplus monies will be donated between the Royal Leamington Spa Rehabilitation Hospital Physiotherapy department  to buy equipment that will benefit other patients


and the Charity Different Strokes which is aimed at younger and working age people who have had a stroke.


Michaela has entered : Women 40-44 Hwt Entrants and is aiming to complete the 2000 metres in 8 minutes, 20 seconds. The record was set in 2005 at 6 minutes 58.2 seconds.

19 women in total  have entered this category so Michaela has a tough challenge to undertake.


http://concept2.co.uk/birc

I have entered the  LTA open category: The 1000 metre LTA class is for indoor rowers with disability but who have the use of their legs, trunk and arms and who can utilise the sliding seat.
The record for this category was set in 2009  at a time of 7minutes and 23.4 seconds. I am aiming to complete the 1K distance in 10 minutes without my hand falling off! So far I am the only entrant in my category and the closing deadline for new entrants is just 3 days away on Wednesday 29th February. so no pressure on me either!!!!

Please support us with your donations which you can send via paypal

or contact Michaela or I directly.

THANK YOU

Our thanks

Michaela and I first announced our challenge on Sunday 29 January and in just 4 weeks we have raised over £1000.00 which is nearly a third of our target amount
We both thank Ali Seal of Seal personal training for his support and encouragement;

to Jon Graham of physiofunction , who will supply an fit appropriate devices, suitable for my specific needs;


to Rob Smith of active hands who kindly donated a velcro glove that enables me to keep my left hand on the rowing machine

Jan's story

A very warm thank you to everyone who reads our blog. In September 2010, at the age of 50 I had a brain haemorrhage which caused a severe stroke.  During the first 24-48 hours no-one knew if I would live. I did survive but was left with cognitive and visual damage and completely paralysed on my left side.  No-one believed I would recover - the statistics are scary - my haemorrhage accounts for only 15% of all strokes and of those 15%, over 80% die.
I have beaten the odds simply by continuing to live.
I spent 3 months in the Royal Leamington Spa Rehabilitation hospital where my initial prognosis continued to be poor - that I would need 24/7 care for the rest of my life.
Three months after the stroke, on 20 Dwcember 2010 I walked out of hospital. :)
I walk with difficulty and need a stick but I do walk. In July 2011 DVLA returned my driving licence and I now drive with the help of a wonderful gadget that enables me to drive one handed as my left hand and arm remain non-functional.

I miss my left arm and am determined to regain as much function as I can. This will involve intensive physiotherapy, helped by various equipment. Unfortunately NHS funding constraints mean that quite simply there are not enough physiothertapists to provide the intensive support  each individual needs. All the equipment that could help improvement is expensive and the wireless functional electrical stimulation devices are not funded by the NHS.
There is no magic pill to regain my lost physical abilities  and even with equipment, recovery will only happen if I put time and effort in. I need to do at least 3-4 hours of physiotherapy every single day to enable my brain to develop new neural pathways, to re-learn the lost funtions.
I am training my brain to learn new ways of doing the old functions. It is bloomin hard work!
When Michaela said she wanted to raise funds tohelpme buy the essential equipment to help me regain my arm function, I was deeply touched and thought it a wonderful idea so I asked my physiotherapist if I could enter the competition. My first challenge was to see if I could get on and off the rower. I could (with help) so why not? I entered the competition along with Michaela and have been in training ever since . In my case this means once a week in the hospital  gym under physiotherapy supervision.

Michaela's February update

a photo showing what I look like when I see all the great support and encouragement pouring in. 5 more weeks to go til the big day...just another 15 or so training sessions, 55k on the rowing machine and at least 200 more generous people donating to this cause. (read more about the cause at the bottom)

I'll do the sweating on the rowing machine, please be one of those donating?

You can donate here via Paypal:

10K is a long way on a rowing machine - Michaela's row

"You have to get a few more miles under your belt", Ali tells me. Ali is from Seal Personal training http://www.sealpersonaltraining.com/ and my trusted rowing coach. This is like rowing from home to Birmingham; a completely crazy idea!

Unconvinced I still promised I would give it a try. So at the weekend I set off to the gym equipped with my ipod and the latest soundtrack from podrunner http://www.djsteveboy.com/podrunner.html to see how far I would get. I noticed that the warm up alone is nearly 2k and began to wonder whether it would be cheating to count the warm up as part of my row to Birmingham? 

A few more stretches and I off I went. It turned out that music as entertainment is completely useless. The idea is to let the mind drift away with the music whilst the body continues on its own but sadly, in my case, the body started drifting too and I eventually got so slow that I would not get past Sparkhill within the hour. So off came the headphones and the wondering how to keep my mind occupied continued with urgency. 10k is a long way on a rowing machine!

I counted strokes to check on the rowing machine's accuracy, tested how long I could avoid looking at the control panel, I tried mental maths: How many meters will I do in the next 2 minutes? What time will I finish if I keep going at the same speed? go faster? or slower? Eventually all these roads led to the same question: "Why on earth do you do this?"

Because.....I can!

I have a healthy, able body. It's easy to forget how precious this is until it is no longer there. Meeting Jan reminds me not only to be grateful for my plentiful health but more importantly to enjoy my bodies abilities. Jan is partly paralized since her stroke 17 months ago but she makes good use of the parts that still work. Although she needs help to get on the rower and can only grip the handle with one hand she started rowing herself. Even better, thanks to the generous donation of active hands http://www.activehands.co.uk/ she now has a special glove which means that she can now join me in rowing at the British Indoor Rowing Championships in Nottingham on March 25th using both arms. 

Only 5 weeks to go now, about 15 more training sessions, over 50k on the rower and at least 200 more generous people willing to sponsor our rowing effort. Please be one of them!

Make your donation at  https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=TTSDYLAW264E2

We are raising money to purchase equipment, not funded through NHS, that will help Jan regain movement in her left hand.

Jan's first row

Donations update

Wow! Gosh!

Michaela and I have been overwhewlmed by all the kind messages, support and donations received over the last couple of weeks. We have raised over £700 already. Thank you so much to everyone who has donated so far.

Michaela and I continue with our training for the British Indoor Rowing Championships due to be held on 25 March in Nottingham.We are both rowing novices so this is a challenge for us both.
We are raising money to purchase equipment, not funded through NHS, that will help me regain movement in my left hand and arm, which 17 months post stroke remains paralysed.

Any surplus will be donated to the Royal Leamington Spa Rehabilitation hospital where I spent 3 months following a brain haemorrhage in September 2010 and to the charity Different Strokes.
Active hands www.activehands.co.uk has kindly donated a glove that enables my left hand to stay on the rower; one of my many difficulties is preventing my hand from falling off, which reduces my time. The glove has made a huge difference.

Michaela and I will launch our blog which will go live 25 February. We will post weekly updates on our progress and you will be able to see photos and videos of us as we train - though I amnot an attractive sight as I go bright red, huffing and puffing!! We will post daily updates in the week leading up to the competition and will of course tell you how we did!

If you wish to donate please use the link below or contact me directly.
Once again, huge huge thanks to everyone for your support. I can't begin to tell you how grateful I am to have your support and wishes and the difference having this equipment will make to me.


Best wishes
Jan


https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=TTSDYLAW264E2

British Indoor Rowing Championships March 25 2012

Imagine you lost the use of your leg and arm over night? How would you cope?

This is what happened to me when I had a brain haemorrhage 16 months ago. Initially my entire left side was paralysed leaving me in need of 24/7 care but I have since been battling my way back to independent living. Still partly paralysed, I am desperate to regain the use of my left arm, an effort not funded by the NHS.

Michaela Muller and I have entered the British Indoor Rowing Championships in Nottingham on March 25th to raise funds for a device (Bioness H200) that can help me with moving my arm again. 


http://concept2.co.uk/birc/info

"This is a huge challenge for both women", says Ali Seal from Seal Personal Training who supports their training efforts, not least because they are both rowing novices.

All moneys raised will go towards the cost of the device and any additional funds raised will be donated to buy physiotherapy equipment for use by the Royal Leamington Spa Rehabilitation Hospital where I spent 3 months in recovery last year and to the charity Different Strokes.

The past 16 months have been quite a journey and I thank each and every one of you who has sent me messages of support and encouragement, every single one has been so very much appreciated. Michaela and I will post details of our targets and our progress over the next few weeks and you will also be able to follow our weekly blog nearer the event date. With thanks and appreciation.

Please click on the link below if you wish to donate via paypal.

Jan and Michaela

https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=TTSDYLAW264E2