My family

Me (John). I am 64 years old.

My wife (Marie). She is 57 years old.

My son (Peter). He is 24 years old (and looking for a girlfriend! Please get in touch!)

Music

I like many different types of music.

I have music playing most of the time at home:

Rock music (Rolling Stones; the Beatles)

Folk music (Irish traditional music)

Country and Western (Steve Earle; Garth Brooks; Bob Seger; Johnny Cash; John Denver)

Blues (from the early days on)

Jazz (Louis Armstrong)

Classical (Romantic composers like Tchaikowsky)

Pop (Joe Cocker; Brian Wilson; Beach Boys)

These are some of the things I do at Connect:

Orange Group

Sally McVicker, a speech and language therapist, runs this group, and is there in the background. But two girls, who are speech and language therapy students, lead the group.

I used to go to this group twice a week, on a Monday and a Friday. About 12 people with aphasia went to the group.

We wrote letters to groups of people with aphasia  in Israel, France, Australia and the USA.

We visited Southwark Cathedral and then went to a nearby bar. We had a meal and a pint.

We went to Museum of London. I was interested in the period from the reign of Elizabeth I onwards. I liked the reproduction of the great fire of London in 1666.

Photography group

I took snapshots of anything I saw that I liked.

And I still do.

I bring my camera to Connect

Here are some photos of people at Connect:  

Conversation group

A group of us meet once a week to chat, along with two speech and language therapy students.

We talk about lots of different things. We choose a topic from the newspapers. A recent discussion was about whether we were Royalists or Republicans. We wondered what Britain would be like if Mrs Thatcher was queen! One of the students makes sure that everyone has their turn to speak.

‘Having a Voice’  

I sat on a panel of people with aphasia.

We met for about six months.

There were representatives from the computer group, Orange group, photography group, the womens’ group, anybody else with aphasia who comes to Connect, for different reasons. 

The group was trying to work out how people with aphasia can be involved in Connect.

How Connect is organised and how it is run, and what Connect does.

There was someone there to take notes, and Sally Byng.

There were 10 people on the panel.

Some people could talk quite easily. Others not so easily. But everybody had a chance to express what they thought.

“Connect”  

Connect has helped me to express myself to everyone.

I'd like everyone who has aphasia to have the chance to come here and express themselves.

Thanks to all at Connect.

John

How this page was made

I use total communication: a mixture of writing, drawing, gesture, communication book (a book with symbols and pictures in) and facial expression. Becky has put this into sentences, and I have told her whether she's understood me.