Lauren is a person we support at Devonshire House, our specialist brain injury rehabilitation service in Manchester. She’s also living proof that life can change in an instant.

Just a few years ago, Lauren was leading a vibrant, active life in Cambridge. A graduate of the prestigious University of Cambridge, Lauren had started an exciting career as a primary school teacher, influencing bright minds of the future.

Happy with her life and confident with who she was, Lauren pictured a future filled with love and prospects, never suspecting it would come to a screaming halt.

Strolling through the scenic cobbled streets of Cambridge, Lauren stepped off the pavement and was hit by a lorry. As Lauren lay unconscious in the road, her life fell apart at the seams and her future faded away.

In a split second, her life had changed forever. That day, Lauren lost herself. The person she was slipped from her grip and who she would become depended on the expertise of those destined to navigate her rehabilitation pathway with her.

Making the most of life

Before her brain injury, Lauren lived a quiet life with her family. At an early age, she lost her father to lung cancer. Grieving for her loss, she ensured she made the most of life and seized every opportunity she was given. Succeeding in education, Lauren went on to complete a degree in history at the University of Cambridge.

After graduating, Lauren pursued her passion for education, following a career as a primary school teacher. Soon, she’d established a role she loved and enjoyed an active social life filled with adventure and laughter.

It seemed like fate that Lauren would soon find her way into the arms of the person she planned to spend the rest of her life with. Proposing marriage, Lauren jumped for joy and gave a firm “yes”!

Together for eight years before her accident, Lauren felt secure in herself and was happy with the life she’d created, surrounded by people she loved.

Sudden changes

The moment Lauren was hit by a lorry, her life stopped in its tracks. Once agile, confident and filled with light, she was now fragile in spirit, her body broken, and her spark dimmed. Arriving at the hospital unconscious, Lauren underwent a series of scans and tests.

An MRI scan showed the impact caused her brain to move around in her skull very quickly, suffering many tiny tears that had big consequences.

Tests determined Lauren’s brain had been affected in other ways and the part responsible for literacy and numeracy was severely damaged. As a teacher, Lauren had honed and refined these skills over the years, taking extraordinary pride in them.

Unaware of the potential changes to her life, Lauren woke from her coma. Seriously injured, her immediate needs were extensive and complex. She’d lost the capacity to swallow independently – known as dysphagia – relying on PEG feeding to replenish her delicate body with essential nutrients.

Lauren also experienced drastic physical changes. She was now unable to walk – vastly different from the active girl who once ventured through the streets of Cambridge. Forced to navigate the possibility of never walking again, the reality of a long rehab journey weighed heavy in her heart.

Before her brain injury, Lauren was fortunate to have good mental health. As she lay in her hospital bed, trapped in a body she didn’t recognise, her mental health unpicked and she fell down a slippery slope, losing grip of her sense of self along the way. A heavy fog skewed Lauren’s self-perception, with her vision of the world around her becoming cloudy too.

The journey home

When Lauren’s health was stable and she was ready to leave hospital, returning home wasn’t possible. Sadly, the relationship with her fiancé ended, and she had no family in Cambridge. Additional mobility needs, communication challenges and dysphagia meant Lauren would need intensive support in many areas of her life.

Initially moving into a specialist rehabilitation unit in Cambridge in 2021, Lauren was supported to keep her body functioning and her life-force ticking over. With minimal therapy input, she wasn’t rehabilitating. She was simply existing.

Fiercely independent before her accident, Lauren was now completely dependent on others – further crumpling her mental health and shrinking her self-esteem. Without expert therapeutic support to address her dulling sense of self, Lauren wouldn’t rehabilitate and reclaim the independence she once thrived on. 

Far away from her family and feeling low, Lauren decided to leave the rehab unit in Cambridge in March 2022, in favour of Devonshire House, our specialist brain injury rehabilitation service in Manchester. Now closer to her mum, Lauren welcomed the move and saw a glimmer of hope in her future. 

Holistic support

When Lauren first moved to Devonshire House, she was tearful and withdrawn, and struggled to understand why she felt this way. Needing a high level of physical support, she relied on two staff members for most of her daily activities, including using her manual wheelchair.  

Lauren no longer felt like a strong, confident woman – something our team at Devonshire House noticed instantly. Using person-centred support and looking at what life was like before her injury, they recognised how her physical disabilities and support needs were affecting her mental health.

Committed to providing holistic support, her team understood the importance of healing her mind, as well as her body, so she could move forward in her rehabilitation.

Through detailed, person-centred assessments, our team were able to link Lauren’s widening mental health problems with her self-perception. Trapped in a viscous cycle of negative thoughts, they knew Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) would be the best choice for Lauren.

As well as helping her process and accept her injury, CBT would support her to reframe thoughts about her appearance, nurturing positive conversations between her heart and her mind.   

Falling in love again

Lauren’s brain injury significantly impacted her speech and mobility, which made her self-conscious. Relying on a wheelchair to get around, she felt imprisoned and deprived of the freedom she once enjoyed. Afraid of being misunderstood by others, she hid behind the screen of her speech problem, stopping herself from freely expressing thoughts and feelings.

Bottling up her emotions, Lauren reached a point where she couldn’t even look in the mirror. She used to enjoy taking care of herself, indulging in rituals like putting on makeup. With her mental health declining, she’d lost the desire to take care of the body she felt was failing her.

With the support of her dedicated Therapy Lead, Lauren connected with her new CBT therapist and set to work repairing her frayed sense of self. 

Engaging in weekly meetings with a specially trained therapist, Lauren focused on adjusting from her life before her injury to her life now.

Through open and honest conversations, Lauren’s therapist has helped her establish tools to help her accept these changes, embracing the prospect that life might continue to change.

Dear me…

During her therapy sessions, one particular exercise helped Lauren address how her injury affected her body and the way she felt about herself. In a heart-warming letter to her pre-injury self, she said:

“Dear Lauren,

Your life is going to change dramatically…but it’s ok! You can still help people, just a little differently. You’ll be in a wheelchair, and you’ll really struggle. It’s confining and frustrating and you won’t like it. But you don’t need to feel so down about this. People are kind and they’ll help you. This will renew your sense of good in others.

You’ll struggle with your perception of your body and what you look like to others. Yes, you are different, but you don’t need to worry – just believe in yourself. You’ll learn to walk again. A bit slower than you’d like, but you’ll get there.

You feel fat and ugly, and struggle with this. Yes, you look different than before but you’re still beautiful, just in a different way!”

Since her brain injury, Lauren’s navigated a daunting journey, filled with uncertainty about her identity and her place in the world around her. With the support of her team and expert therapist, she’s putting the pieces back together and finding a new sense of hope for the future. Something she also expressed in her letter:

“Your life is now different from what you originally imagined. You still have a lot to offer. So, my friend, hang in there! You are incredible. Believe in yourself and keep going!”

Courage and power

Successfully engaging with CBT, Lauren felt inspired to embrace a new chapter in her life. Widening her therapy delivery, she engaged in other therapies, like music therapy, to further improve her body image and rediscover who she was.

Alongside her support team, Lauren connected with therapists she trusts and quickly saw positive outcomes. Feeling more comfortable in her skin, she enrolled in physiotherapy to further develop her self-esteem, discover strength in her new body, and improve her mobility.

Lauren’s physical changes led to weight gain. Previously active, she maintained a slim figure and felt healthy every day. With her reduced mobility, a change in body shape was inevitable and she struggled to accept this.

With the support of her team at Devonshire House, Lauren joined a specially adapted rehabilitation gym, where she now uses a variety of exercise equipment designed for people with brain injuries.

Accessing the gym on a regular basis means Lauren’s on track with managing her body image. By rebuilding her physical strength, she’s unearthed a new sense of inner strength. Aiming to eventually walk again, she’s finding the physical power and emotional courage needed to achieve this goal.  

Receiving input from expert therapists and her specialist support team, Lauren’s rapidly ticking off goals set with her dedicated Therapy Lead. With an initial goal of simply facing herself in the mirror, Lauren’s gone one step further.

With a renewed sense of self, she’s manifested a new partner into her life! Thanks to her bold determination and the compassion of her team, Lauren’s stitched together the seams of her life and made peace with her new body. Now, she’s focusing on making meaningful connections with other people.

Independent woman

During therapy sessions, Lauren also addressed her fears of being seen by other people – an issue affecting many people with brain injuries. Aware of her altered appearance, she struggled with low self-perception while out in the community.

Lauren’s anxieties were validated when she experienced a situation on public transport. Taking a trip with her Support Worker, the bus driver ignored Lauren.

Immediately recognising how this might dampen Lauren’s recently rebuilt self-esteem, her Support Worker insisted the driver speak to her directly.

This experience fed Lauren’s complexes about her appearance. Her confidence was knocked but, with the support of her team, she’s found her voice and the confidence to speak up and re-establish herself as a valuable person.

One of Lauren’s key goals is to get her own place, so weaving back into the fabric of the community is important. When she first moved to Devonshire House, she struggled living in a residential setting and sharing her home with lots of other people. Self-sufficient before her injury, she knew living independently was something she wanted in the future.

Independence gives Lauren the sense of self that dependency on others has taken away. Although she still needs support with mobility and managing her dysphagia, she’s determined to reclaim her independence and take care of herself in the future – something she’ll never take for granted again.

Lauren’s new era

With our person-centred approach to brain injury rehabilitation, Lauren’s received the holistic support needed to ensure her relationship with herself was repaired, allowing her to move forward in her rehab. Fiercely determined the whole way, Lauren still attributes a lot of her success to our team at Devonshire House. Kind and compassionate, they’ve helped Lauren believe in herself and embrace who she is.

Refilling her cup with confidence and self-belief, Lauren’s proving to be a source of inspiration to her fellow housemates! Providing a shoulder to lean on for those struggling to accept changes to their bodies, she’s a shining example of the power of positive thinking.  

With her infectious energy and appetite for life, just one conversation with Lauren has encouraged another person we support to accept their new body and redefine their future!

A champion for her peers at Devonshire House, Lauren’s previous career as a teacher means she’s a natural at supporting others and making them feel empowered. And now she feels empowered in herself again, she’s pursuing her passions!

Her career as a teacher filled her life with purpose. So, after her injury, Lauren longed to reestablish a sense of meaning. Supported by her team, Lauren explored volunteering options. With strong educational skills and as a self-confessed bookworm, she was naturally drawn to a role reading to children at a local primary school.

Taking pride in her volunteering role, she’s passionate about giving children the opportunity to read and get lost in a story the way she does. While she’s immersed in tall tales and wild worlds, she finds avenues to escape and separate her mind from her body.

Wandering through the depths of imagination with children who see past her physical appearance, she’s taken another step forward in her journey to exploring who she is and falling back in love with herself. And we’re excited to continue to be part of that journey.

Find out more!

If you’d like to find out more about our specialist brain injury rehabilitation support and how it could help you, a loved one or a client, fill out our simple form and a member of our friendly team will be in touch.

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