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Headway News Apr 07
report by Marcus Fairhurst
Things at Headway continue to run smoothly. Being unemployed and seemingly unemployable as I am, I have had the chance to do some volunteering there on Fridays. Getting a proper in-depth picture of what goes on there fills me with even more admiration for staff and attendees alike. Some of their stories are truly heart-wrenching, people going about their daily lives as we all do, only to be struck down by some piece of
terrible misfortune: wrong time, wrong place. Having endured months, if not years, in hospital, I was all the more amazed to see how this has only served to strengthen the resolve and ambition of these people to regain as much as they can of their normal lives and to achieve all the goals they had before.
The story behind ex-stunt man Ben Bellman illustrates this remarkable outlook; having previously worked on films such as Gladiator and Die Another Day as well as being a black belt in everything under the sun and an underwater photographer who free dived with Great White Sharks (and has the picture to prove it!). Ben was a sky diving instructor in Spain some years ago until one day an accident happened and his main chute didn’t open. Aided only by an emergency chute that opened late, Ben hurtled into the ground at a terrible speed, smashing almost every bone in his body. Against all the odds, doctors managed to save his life, although he was left seriously impaired both mentally and physically. Ben is working hard every day to adapt to his new life and, although extremely poorly sighted, reads for hours every day. He continues to swim and take yoga classes to keep in shape. His ambition is to one day get back into the world of film as a stunt director and, having spent some time with him, I’m sure that he will not rest until he gets there.
Money raised by OPS helps attendees like Ben, and many others, visit and experience things in London that they perhaps otherwise wouldn’t be able to, be it a trip to the cinema or a visit to the Tower of London. Whilst the help and therapy given at the centre is incredibly well thought out and delivered, it needs to be supplemented with these extra trips that each provide their own unique kind of stimulation and interest, as well as getting attendees used to getting out and about and doing these everyday things that we take for granted. Having gone out on a few visits with Ben and the others, the effect that these trips have on them is even more positive than one would envisage.
Emma, our contact at Headway, is putting together a list of some plans for upcoming trips so we’ll keep you posted with the hope of organising something where you can come along and meet some of the people from Headway yourselves. Also, a documentary film is currently being made about the remarkable story of Ben Bellman, so we’ll keep you posted on that.
Headway – over n out.
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