Giving Voice

Wednesday 30 January 2013

Sunny Days and Happy Things...

Loving the sunshine today! The winter blues are slowly disappearing as I notice the nights beginning to slowly get lighter, payday draws steadily closer and the sun is shining brightly through my window... The time between Christmas and the end of January always seems so long but there’s been a few exciting things happened this month so I thought I’d sit down and share them with you.

Firstly, I am extremely excited that my train tickets are booked for the Giving Voice Working Group residential next month! I remain positive that the train service will serve me well and that the weather person in the sky stays happy to allow easy travelling for me and my fellow working group colleagues. So far this year, my Giving Voice involvement has had a slightly slower momemtum than usual, so I am super excited about getting my teeth properly stuck back into campaigning and meeting fellow Giving Voice enthusiasts at the training next month. I look forward to sharing my Giving Voice adventure with you all.

Secondly, as we were unable to make it to London for the Giving Voice awards we are holding our own little celebration in Newcastle. I’ve been helping the North East Trust for Aphasia  (NETA) organise a celebration which is to be held in March. As part of this event I have been asked to talk for 10 minutes about my involvement in Giving Voice and why I nominated NETA. I have written to my MP to invite him along to the event (and of course took the opportunity to thank him for his previous support and remind him of how brilliant SLTs are!) I’m really looking forward to being part of this celebration and will update you after the event! :-)


 

Speech and Language Therapy Transforms Lives!

Sunday 13 January 2013

(Belated) Happy New Year!

Where does the time go? I had every intention of blogging before the New Year yet here we are two weeks into January!
I can hardly believe that its two years ago this month that I first got involved in Giving Voice. I couldn’t have imagined where this journey would take me, but so far I have enjoyed every minute!
This time last year my blog had only just exceeded 2000 page views (in 5 months) and now it has exceeded 15,000 views. Words cannot describe how amazing this is and I am extremely grateful that people are interested in reading more about Speech and Language Therapy – spreading the message one person at a time. I've tweeted lots of people my blog in recent months and have been delighted that a number of celebrities have retweeted it to their followers. (use the #givingvoiceuk hashtag to raise awareness of SLT or get involved in the #bigSLTtalk every Wednesday!)
I am delighted and overwhelmed that I won the Newly Qualified Practitioner Award at the 2012 Giving Voice awards. To have my campaigning recognised is truly wonderful. Last year was brilliant, from handing out leaflets at The Kings Speech, Theatre Royal Newcastle, giving out leaflets and balloons at Saltwell park to cheering on the runners at the GNR with jelly babies, I tried to engage a range of people in the campaign.

The highlight of my campaigning year, though, was meeting Lost Voice Guy and then have him headline a Giving Voice entertainment evening to fundraise for the North East Trust for Aphasia. I was absolutely delighted that my nominations of both led to them winning Giving Voice awards of their own (and am still disappointed we were unable to make it to the ceremony due to weather and trains!) For more information about the extremely talented Lost Voice Guy (Lee Ridley) check out his website. If you’d like to learn more about the amazing work of NETA click here.



I am looking forward to the year ahead and seeing where Giving Voice will go. I am excited to be involved in the Giving Voice working group and looking forward to the residential trip next month. Don’t forget if you are a member of RCSLT and want to get involved contact emma.barnes@rcslt.org. Let’s make this  the year everyone hears that Speech and Language Therapy Transforms Lives.