Sharon's Story

We first met Sharon at a craft group ran by P3’s BeWell team. With a smile that lights up the room, Sharon and her friends attend weekly to socialise, catch-up and be creative. But behind the warmth of the group, all in attendance are combating an issue many people supported by P3’s BeWell service experience: loneliness.

Sharon started her wellbeing support with P3 with the goal of rebuilding her confidence and independence following a life-changing brain injury.

After the accident, everyday tasks became challenging and things she once loved –like creating art – felt out of reach. With the right support, she has been taking steady steps forward, rediscovering her confidence and finding new ways to reconnect with the things that matter to her.

Sharon starts by explaining a little bit about the lead up to her brain injury. She says, “Well, I guess it started when I lost a lot of blood after an operation I had when I was 31, I died as I only had a pint of blood left and they had to resuscitate me. Which caused brain damage.

“Because of this my short-term memory was damaged so I had to retrain my brain. But I still went back to work, I was a single mum with three children, so life didn’t stop. But then as I went into a new career, I ended up having two accidents within a year of each other.

“One was a vehicle accident, where somebody drove into our van and that damaged my neck muscles, but they didn’t scan my brain. Then just under a year later I was working at a hotel, and I had another accident there. So basically, the accumulation of all these accidents impacted on my brain again.”

“The extreme meds I was on caused me to have seizures, which I still have today even if not as many. It impacted in a lot of ways and so now I have FND.”

FND refers to Functional Neurological Disorder, which is a condition where the brain and nervous system do not function properly. Just like in Sharon’s case, it can cause neurological symptoms without formal structural brain damage.

As the organisation FND Hope explains, the exact cause of FND is unknown, but it is multifactorial, involving both physical and psychological risk factors. Stress, trauma, or other illnesses can trigger or exacerbate symptoms. Research shows that people with FND often have altered brain connectivity, particularly in areas involved in emotion regulation and motor control, which affects the sense of agency and the ability to control movements.

Sharon describes it as “brain trauma. For me, that’s non-epileptic seizures, dissociative behaviour and Potts as well. My nervous system has been compromised, so a lot of things that it usually looks after has been affected. It’s from when I had the neck injury that damaged my spinal cord.”

Sharon also outlines some other symptoms such as fatigue, struggling to adjust to noise and brightness but also something much rarer – she says, “I sometimes wake up and just speak with another accent, I can’t control it.

“Sometimes my speech will just go if I feel overloaded, and I end up having this weird accent which could be anything. When that happens, I feel like I’m five years old, it’s horrible, it’s embarrassing.

“I struggle with it and I get frustrated because my brain feels so slow. Communication becomes very difficult, so I’m not able to do the things I want to do and sometimes it causes a seizure.”

Sharon reflects on conversations with her ex-husband, saying that he didn’t like how she looked when she was having a seizure. Sharon explains that this has affected her confidence and made her overly aware of how she looks when she isn’t feeling well.

“I don’t actually know what I look like, but I can only go off what I’ve been told. So that has caused me a lot of anxiety, but since I’ve been with [my support workers], they’ve reassured me and I feel better.

“But it’s still hard, it can be totally debilitating.”

Life-changing Support

Despite everyday challenges, Sharon is clear that the P3 BeWell team have had a huge impact on her life and wellbeing.

She says, “The team have been amazing, they help me to go out and they help me when I’m struggling with anxiety. Last week I couldn’t get a pint of milk from the shop because my anxiety took over, so they helped me out.

“Going out with my support workers and coming to groups like [the craft group] really help. I feel like I can move forward.

“I’m sure this year will be very positive for me; I woke up one morning and thought this year is going to be good. I’ve got my new therapy dog, Lunar, so when I have seizures, she lies on me, so I know she’s there.

“She helps me to go outside, go in the garden and stuff like that. Dogs are so good for people, it’s like having a support worker with you all the time. Therapy dogs can also make other people aware there is a problem if something happens. I wouldn’t be without her. The only time I don’t need her is when I come to groups like this.”

Sharon reflects on her time with her support workers, saying: “People shouldn’t underestimate the importance of the support and all the things that support workers do, I mean, they do so much.

“It’s a service that really deserves credit because it’s the difference between being completely and utterly isolated and wanting to give up to having a life. My mental health practitioner has said that I have changed so much since I’ve had this support.”

Sharon says, “I can have a good time, it’s now possible to do these things. I’ve had to learn that I’m a different person now, I used to look in the mirror, and I didn’t recognise myself at all. But the [support workers] have helped me to accept who I am now and not be so hard on myself.”

A huge part of BeWell’s support is providing trips for people using the service, Sharon has said that this has massively helped her to get out of the house. She says, “The last one we went to was the panto, which was really good. When I go out in groups, if it’s noisy, I can sometimes pay for it later but it’s so worth it because I get to go out and have fun again.

“It’s so worth it, I have been able to get out after years of not going anywhere.

“Starting again after my injury has really made me thing about the impact it had on me for so long, you know it’s like those boxers who are hit so many times but it’s not until they’re older or dead that we see the damage.

“I want my brain to go to science; you know the brain is like a big computer and it’s important to understand why sometimes it just doesn’t work.”

Sharon talks about why this research is so necessary, so that others facing life-changing brain injuries don’t have to live through the same pain as her. To her younger self, or to others going through the same pain, she says:

“Be kind to yourself. You constantly beat yourself up, you constantly doubt yourself or push yourself too far to get better. Even if you have people around you telling you that there is nothing wrong with you, listen to yourself. Sometimes pushing too hard can make it worse.

“Now FND is more out there, more understood – so that’s something. But you still need to be kind and patient with yourself. Give your brain time to rest and create new pathways.”

Crafting Confidence

Sharon has been attending the craft group since it started, she says, “Donna, my support worker, started the craft group so she told me about it and encouraged me to go. It’s been good, it’s helped me go out and it’s helped me to get back into art again.

“Since my head injury, I’ve not been able to do any art, but I used to be an artist so that was a lot. I couldn’t hold a pencil or anything, so anything to do with crafts I stayed away from. I was left with anxiety and a lot of things like that, so this group really helped me to gain the confidence.

“Our support workers attend too, so if we’re stuck on something they can help us. So it’s good – it’s been great actually.”

Sharon explains that beyond helping her stay on track with her support plan, the group has been a great way to meet friends. Sharon says, “They all know me, [some of us] meet outside of the group – you know, I’m the noisy one so –”

Here the other members of the group cut in to laughingly agree. Sharon smiles, “When I’m not here, they know about it!”

With this, it’s clear that the group has become an important part of Sharon’s week, a space where she feels comfortable and supported to be herself again. What started as a small step back into creativity has grown into something much more: rebuilding confidence, reconnecting with others and finding joy in the things she once loved.

If you or someone you know could benefit from support like this, P3’s wellbeing services are here to help. Find out more, by clicking the button below.