Awareness day
Action for brain injury week 2025
Action for Brain Injury Week will take place during the week of 19th - 25th May 2025. The week provides an annual platform to help raise awareness and facilitate open discussions on the impact of brain injuries.
Every 90 seconds, a UK hospital admits another person with a brain injury. Brain injuries impact more than 350,000 people per year in the UK and do not discriminate. They can affect anyone, at any time.
While some people recover quickly after a minor head injury, often known as a concussion, this is not always the case and people may experience long-term health issues. It is vital we continue to raise awareness of brain injuries and the impact they have.
Emma Doughty, head of medical negligence, said, “It’s a frightening statistic that one in three people in the UK will suffer a brain injury at some point in their lives. Every 90 seconds, someone else will be affected. Most of us will know someone who has experienced a brain injury in some form, be that through illness or injury, and the impact of brain injury on individuals and their whole families can be devastating.
But despite these statistics, brain injures still do not have the awareness they need, and the signs and symptoms remain widely unrecognised. Support is often hard to find for survivors and families, and access to specialist care is very much a postcode lottery across the UK. It’s really important that we take opportunities such as Brain Injury Week to shine a light on this ‘hidden disability’ and find out what more we can do to support those who need it.”
‘On a good day’
The theme for Action for brain injury week 2025 is ‘On a good day’. This year’s theme aims to highlight fluctuating and unpredictable nature of brain injury, highlighting the gap between capabilities on a good day versus a bad day.
Our client, Aine, was hit from behind by a car that mounted the pavement while walking home on New Year’s Day, . She suffered a traumatic brain injury, a fractured vertebrae in her neck and a skull fracture, which left Aine struggling to remember things that had happened more than five minutes prior, and the names of people, places and foods. Aine shared with us the reality of how her symptoms still impact her daily life, such as only being able to work part-time due to her suffering from constant fatigue.
Brain injuries can happen in an instant, but have lasting impacts that those effected have to live with day to day. Some days people like Aine have a bit more energy and feel more able but no two days are the same and they require support in different ways. We are proud to be able to offer not only legal support, but support in the form of our rehabilitation co-ordinators as well. The reality of brain injuries is that they touch every part of your life and completely change your ability to do things that might have been taken for granted before. Our rehabilitation co-ordinators work with clients to ensure they get the support they need and are supported to reach goals that are important to them. This can be as simple as regaining independence when it comes to doing simple everyday tasks on their own.
Matthew Tomlinson, head of serious injury- North, said, “Action for Brain Injury Week is important in helping us all to understand the impact that brain injury has upon survivors and their loved ones.
The fact that someone is admitted to hospital with an acquired brain injury every 90 seconds in the UK is very sobering.
Providing support, guidance, advice, and understanding is key in helping to treat and rehabilitate those living with a brain injury and those that support them.”
A lack of awareness can make it difficult to fully understand how common brain injuries are, but also how devastating they can be.
Our personal injury team works closely with those who have brain injuries, to offer them support and advice at a time when nothing seems normal or safe. Our expert solicitors witness the impact of brain injuries and the incredible resilience it takes to redefine life, post injury.
How we can help
Sustaining and living with a brain injury is a scary reality, but as this year’s theme reminds us, there are good days. Our legal experts and our rehabilitation co-ordinators work hard to offer a holistic support system so that our clients can have ore good days.
Tracey Benson, head of the serious injury department in the South, stated, “Brain Injury Week is an important opportunity for us to call for change, to ensure that survivors and their families are given the bespoke support they need and deserve so they can move on from their injury and look to a brighter future.”
At Slater and Gordon, we know that those impacted by brain injury live with it every day. To reflect this, we will continue to raise awareness and support causes that do the same. We will also continue to share helpful information across our different platforms.
We work closely with many organisations that support those with brain injuries and their families. Our charity partner, Headway, do amazing work year-round in the name of their mission: to promote understanding of all aspects of brain injury and provide information, support and services to survivors, their families and carers.
CBIT (Child Brain Injury Trust) is another charity we work with, and they help support families and professionals working with children and young people who find themselves in need of information about what has happened and how to cope. We are proud to be their legal service provider for Wales, helping families with the legal guidance, support and compassion at what is often a very difficult time.
We are also proud to be one of The Brain Charity's legal service providers as we understand how the support and guidance, they offer to families who have been affected by brain injury, can make an impact.
There are more than 600 different conditions affecting the brain, spinal cord or nervous system and The Brain Charity offers support and advice for all of them.
If you or a family member has suffered a head or brain injury that was caused by someone else's negligence, our legal experts are here to help guide you throughout your entire legal journey.
Contact us on 0330 041 5869 or online here to begin a head and brain injury compensation claim.