Headway Preston & Chorley is urging people to keep safe over the festive period to avoid acquiring a head or brain injury. Headway’s message is clear; keep yourself safe, look after your friends and get home safely.
The campaign is all about thinking ahead and being mindful of the dangers of acquiring a head injury while out celebrating, particularly while drinking alcohol. Keeping an ICE number (in case of emergency) in your phone and planning how you are going to get home is just as important as the night out itself.
According to recent statistics a large number of head injuries are sustained through trauma such as falls, assaults and road traffic collisions. If trauma to your brain is severe, it can lead to bleeding, bruising and swelling inside the brain and can even kill. Even a minor bump to the head can have long term effects and cause memory loss, depression and insomnia.
Liz Bamber, Headway campaign manager said: “Through our work at Headway, we are seeing a growing number of individuals who unfortunately acquire a traumatic brain injury though accidents and assaults. At this time of year in particular, people tend to enjoy more parties and nights out than usual and excessive drinking can lead to people being in more vulnerable positions, as a result accidents can and do happen. We are hoping that this campaign will help prevent more instances of brain injury and remind people to keep themselves safe and look out for others”.