Campaign urges youngsters to use their heads
Local charity Headway Leicester is to launch a hard-hitting
campaign aimed at those most likely to sustain a brain injury.
The campaign targets young people with a stark warning about
the devastating risks of head injury. Young people aged 15 to
29 are three times more likely to sustain a brain injury than
any other group.
One of the major causes of head injury are road traffic accidents
and almost 1,200 young drivers (Department of Transport Accident
Statistics) are killed or seriously injured on UK roads each
year, with young men almost 10 times more likely to be affected.
Alcohol is a factor in 31% of traumatic brain injuries.
The startling figures come as Headway, the brain injury association,
launches a campaign called ‘It won’t happen to me’
during Brain Injury Awareness Week (March 12-18).
The campaign is spearheaded by members of Headway Leicester
and local survivors of brain injury who are distributing campaign
posters in colleges and schools.
Mary Goulty, the Services Director of Headway Leicester, said:
“The posters are very striking and thought provoking.
We have been delighted with the supportive response.”
“We all tend to think of ourselves as immortal when we’re
young but the statistics speak for themselves. It’s frightening
that so many young people in Leicestershire and Rutland could
find their lives changed forever as a result of a brain injury
– just when they have so much to live for.
Men are three times more likely to have a brain injury than
women and men aged between 15-29 are FIVE times more likely
to suffer brain injury.”
The potential consequences of a brain injury can be multiple
and life-changing, such as cognitive problems, loss of memory,
difficulties with planning, organising and problem solving,
loss of concentration, loss of co-ordination, loss of movement,
epilepsy, difficulty in speaking, loss of sight, smell or taste
and sexual dysfunction as well as emotional and behavioural
problems.
|
