Alan Hewitt and Cressida Laywood both suffer from aphasia, a communication problem that can affect not only speech but reading, writing and understanding. In their cases, aphasia followed brain haemorrhages but has affected them somewhat differently. Alan’s speech remains slightly impaired whereas Cressida’s speech is restored but she remains paralysed down her right side. The two of them met five years ago. This week they talked to John Peel about what life was like living together with their condition. Speaking with a slight hesitation, and occasional difficulty in pronunciation, Alan explains, "Before the brain haemorrhage, nine years ago, nothing at all was wrong with me. I was Head of Development for a national charity. Then I got a headache in the middle of the night, and was sick. I was taken into hospital and operated on. ."
On leaving hospital, the right side of Alan's body was paralysed. "It's improved now, and I don't show the paralyis so much. And I've learned to hide it." Emotionally, however, Alan's struggle to recover from his brain haemorrage helped him recover from the depression he'd suffered after splitting up from his wife and two children. "After the operation, the depression had gone from my mind. I knew I had to get better."
For two years, Alan was unable to speak, but over the time his speech has improved. Some friends were supportive, others faded away. Alan is optimistic, "Every day I get bettter, sometimes things get worse, but things are good for us now."
Cressida also suffered a stroke, a brain haemorrhage, and apahasia at the age of twenty-eight. "I was in a coma for two weeks and in hospital for eight months. It was touch and go whether I would live. Before my stroke, my work for a national charity and chair of a housing association was my life. Suddenly it was gone." Friends were abundant at first, but nine years later, Cressida, like Alan, has found that people have drifted away, "I have about two friends from the past. People are embarrassed, and they think 'Oh my God, she's not going to improve!' " For eighteen months, Cressida was clinically depressed, feeling her life had ended. She was told, "You're going to be in a wheelchair, you won't be able to speak, you're going to be a vegetable."
It was Cressida's mother who encouraged her daughter to fight against this bleak prognosis. "She'd tell me 'You're going to get better' when everyone else said I was going to be a vegetable." Through her speech therapist she got in touch with a organisation called Speakability. This led to the setting up of a self-help group for people with aphasia. At the same time, Alan, in Gateshead, was taking a similar course of action. "We saw each other at a meeting, and fell in love at first sight," says Cressida, "Meeting Alan was wonderful. It's given us a lot of energy."
Together Alan and Cressida set up the self-help group Aphasia Nottingham which is affiliated to Speakability. Cressida's speech is clear and fluent, whereas Alan's is rather halting, but Alan has more mobility than Cressida, and has less trouble reading and writing, "Between us we've got different skills, so it works very well," says Cressida.
Money is a problem. Both Alan and Cressida had to leave wll-paid jobs, and now their income totals around seven thousand pounds a year. Asked whether they're circumstances are going to improve, Alan hesitant but Cressida instantly says "Yes! We work very hard, and we want the recognition, and we're getting there, we're getting there."
