About the project

Who Are You Now? is a project run by Headway East London, a charity that supports survivors of brain injury from across the north and east of London. Its services include advocacy, therapies and occupational projects like Who Are You Now?, all based at its community centre in Hackney.

As a non-profit organisation we need to raise funds to complete this project and continue our other services. If you appreciate the stories, please click HERE and make a donation.

With improvements in emergency medicine, survival rates for head trauma and other causes of injury to the brain are increasing dramatically. Unfortunately, the long term support available to survivors has not kept pace. 60% are long-term unemployed and as many as 80% live with secondary mental health problems. Many of the problems experienced by survivors are hidden from view. They can become isolated and are disadvantaged by inaccessible legal and civic systems. The aim of this project is to help survivors regain their voices and the confidence to use them, and to help others understand the impact of brain injury.

In some cases the names of narrators and the people in their lives have been changed.

We also thank Awards For All, The Merchant Taylors’ Company, Evan Cornish Foundation and Irwin Mitchell Solicitors for their support and generosity.

The project relies on the help of volunteers from both our own membership and the wider community. We would like to thank:

The families and friends of the people whose stories are told here. Without their help, this project would not have been possible.

All our talented volunteers: Lori De Mori, Natalie Smith, Danny Muir, Cecilia Wolfenstein, Tasneem Aziz, Jessica Harneyford, Toni Barnett, Danny Scott, Billy Mann, Firoza Choudhury, Alix McAlister, Ajay Makan, Laura Owens and Matthew Loxham for their work in interviewing and editing; Amanda D’Souza, Niall Tierney, Gavin Millar, Kate Murray-Browne, Reuben Lane and Pavla Kopecna for reading and consultation; Andy Sewell and Alex Pink for their beautiful photographic portraits; Hui Hui Ng for photo editing support; Sarah Whitby; and the typing pool staff at Fried Frank LLP for their help with transcribing.

Special thanks to Alex Charlton and Pumkin Design for their generosity in designing and building the website.

Who Are You Now? 2015:

Project Manager: Ben Mills

Editor: Christina Petrie

Communications Manager: Laura Owens

Who Are You Now? 2016:

Project Managers: Ben Mills and Christina Petrie

Editors: Christina Petrie and Bryn Davies

Communications Manager: Laura Owens

Additional image editing and design: Emily Manning

Podcasts: Claire Crofton

If you’d like to know more or want to give feedback on the project, please write to us or ring us on 020 7749 7790.

All material copyright © Headway East London and respective narrators 2015/2016. All rights reserved.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other non-commercial uses permitted by copyright law. For permission requests, please email the subject “Attention: Permissions Coordinator” to whoareyounow@headwayeastlondon.org.