Winston is planning a trip to South Africa in the summer of 2008.In preparation for the trip, he has sent letters similar to this out in advance, trying to make contacts and aquaintances
Greetings !
I'm a stroke survivor.
I'm an aphasia patient.
I want to be able to talk.
I'm sending this to request your help to establish local contacts for my upcoming trip, possibly in the late summer or fall.
I'm not looking for financial assistance or sponsorships. I just want to have some contacts that I can get in touch with.
I had a stroke six years ago. It was a miracle I survived. After a long journey of rehab, my health has improved. As a result of the stroke, I have aphasia and apraxia.
Before the stroke, I ran a successful business that provided automobiles and auto parts to many countries. The business also provided training to auto mechanics in thirty-five countries.
I have not stopped working.
Keeping busy is a way to balance my mind and soul. I still run a business that provides high-end business trainings in the middle-eastern countries.
Over the last few years, I have been active in the stroke and aphasia communities, locally and globally. Three times, I attended the 6-week Residential Aphasia Program offered by the University of Michigan, where I learned to translate my thoughts into words and learned to speak again. In May 2007 I traveled to University of Michigan again. I attended the 2-day aphasia workshop in celebration of their 60th anniversary. I was invited to attend the preview of the movie The Way Back Home, featuring award-winning actress Julie Harris. Julie, a stroke survivor, has aphasia, and portrays an aphasia patient in the movie. I met Julie and we exchanged our experiences as aphasia patients.
I've traveled and made friends with stroke survivors, co-survivors, caretakers, and of course, medical professionals in the stroke area. Meeting with the people in the stroke and aphasia communities opened my eyes in the new world that a lot of people don't know about. Darlene Williamson, CCC-SLP, the Director of the Stroke Comeback Center of Oakton, Virginia, told me an experience she had that made her believe we need to get the attention of the public to learn more about aphasia. Among funding issues and other things, there is a lack of understanding of people with aphasia. Once she had a conversation with a person and mentioned about aphasia, and the person asked "what is aphasia?". Darlene said that's exactly the point!
In June 2006, I've traveled to Boston and attended the Fifth Annual Aphasia Conference organized by the National Aphasia Association. With permission, I videotaped their speeches. I've shared the videos with the public and have gotten a lot of positive feedback.
In December 2006, I traveled to Melbourne, Australia and visited the family and extended families of my Australian spouse. We made friends with a lot of Australians in the stroke community. Ms. Clare Gray of Stroke Association of Victoria has become a good friend.
The Stroke Awareness Week of Australia took place in various cities in September 2007. Stroke Association of Victoria. I was one of the organizers. Harvey Alter of New York City, also a stroke survivor, and I were invited to be speakers during the Stroke Awareness Week. We traveled to Australia and spoke at conferences in Melbourne, Sydney, and Hobart. In addition, we traveled to Adelaide, Horsham, Bendigo, Newcastle, Brisbane, and more and visited and talked to stroke support groups, medical institutes, universities, and individuals. The trip to Australia lasted five weeks through October 2007. In addition, we stopped in London twice where we visited stroke centers in London and Surrey. It was rewarding for me and Harvey, and for the folks we met. Let me tell you why.
I'm a techie person. After the stroke I began to make use of technological equipment to help me communicate. In addition to the laptops and desktops I have at my home/office, I have a cell phone, an iPod, an iPhone, a digital camera, a professional video camcorder, an HP pocket PC, and more. The software installed on my computers reads out the documents for me to listen to. I use a digital camera to record business meetings, doctor's appointments, or just private conversations with my friends so that I can go through them when I get home, as I may have missed out the contents of the conversation due to my limited ability to listen and talk.
Recently, with the help of a vocal instructor, I've developed a new skill to talk. It has proven to work for me, and for other aphasia patients whom I met with during the trip when I demonstrated to them how I did it. They tried and they liked the idea and found it user-friendly. First I drafted a speech. Then the vocal instructor read out the speech, loudly and clearly, while I videotaped his mouth movements. Then I uploaded the video onto my computer, using the Adobe Premiere Pro program, and created a movie of it. I burned a DVD of the movie, and made copies of the DVD and shared it with my friends. At the same time, I uploaded the movie on my iPod. During the days after that, I carried the iPod with me, listening to the speech on my earphones and watching the mouth movements displayed on the iPod screen. I read the speech aloud following the recorded speech on iPod. I practiced the speech over and over again, until I was confident to deliver the speech in public. That was exactly what I did in Australia and in England. I've gotten a lot of positive feedback, and it inspired a lot of aphasia patients to copy my technique to talk. One thing about the speech that makes it easy to follow along is that the vocal instructor read the speech out in a melodic tone. That makes it easy for me and for some aphasia patients to get the words out since some people including me find it easier to sing than to talk. To talk in a melodic tone helps me to get the words out. With a lot of practice the sing-talk conversation will eventually sound more like a normal speech. Of course when I am not following a pre-recorded tape, I talk in a normal tone just like you.
For the year 2008, I am planning for a trip to Johannesburg. I have always been a world traveler, before and after the stroke. I want to share my story with as many people as possible. I believe there are no geographic boundaries for stroke survivors and aphasia patients. I want to help the stroke survivors, meet with them, and let them know that if I can do it, they can do it too. My motto is "I want to be able to talk".
I am sending you this email to request you to help me to establish some local contacts for my upcoming trip, possibly some time in the late summer or fall. Let me assure you again I am not looking for financial assistance or sponsorships from you or from the local support groups. I am not selling any services or products. I just want to have some contacts that I can get in touch with. I have a friend Klaus Grogor in South Africa who is a Lamborghini dealer and a leader in his community. He may or may not be familiar with aphasia communities in South Africa.
I found your name from the South African Speech-Language-Hearing Association website. I hope you're the right contact. If you are, or if you can pass this request on to someone who will help me establish contacts I will greatly appreciate it. I have a lot of good references in U.S.A., U.K., Australia, Russia, Kuwait, and Saudi Arabia, if you need them.
Clare Gray of Stroke Association of Victoria can answer any questions, or provide you with a reference.
May I have your mailing address so that I can send you copies of the DVD movies that I produced?
Please check out my website www.WinGOGlobal.com , and check out the video clips I posted on www.YouTube.com, keyword: WinGOGlobal.
In fact, there is a video clip on YouTube named Boroondara Stroke Support Group that you may enjoy watching.
I look forward to hearing from you.
Regards,
Winston Jerome Lindsley
Feedback re South African Trip as of 1-17-2008
From: Dr. Leora Cherney, Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago
Date: Jan 15, 2008
Thanks for your email. I am very excited to "meet" you - especially when I read that you are a "techie person". You are a great role-model to others with aphasia - living your life to the fullest despite the aphasia. What a success story you have to share!
From: Dr. Glenn Goldblum, Department of Communication Pathology, University of Pretoria, South Africa
Date: Jan 16, 2008
"Thank you for your interesting e-mail....certainly inspirational to hear of someone so proactive as an advocate of aphasia. Please contact me when you do visit South Africa - let me know in advance when you will be visiting as I'm doing some travelling this year and would be disappointed to miss your visit. I work at the University of Pretoria - about 50 minutes out of Johannesburg and would really like you to come and meet our group members and my students.I will also share your input with some of our group members in the meantime who may contact you directly if they have questions."
From: Clare Gray, Stroke Association of Victoria, Australia
Date: Jan 17, 2008
It is exciting at least you have the time, energy and able to spread the word well by demonstrating how it can be achieved. Keep the good work up and remember if we can help with literature just let me know what you want.
From: Michelle Kearney, The Heart and Stroke Foundation SA, Cape Town, South Africa
Date: Jan 17, 2008
"Many thanks for contacting us regarding you impending visit to our beautiful country. What an amazing story and person you come across us through your email - well done for taking such a positive outlook on life and using your experience to help others - if there were only a few more of you around!"
From: Claudine Emmerick, South African Speech-Language-Hearing Association, South Africa
Date: Jan 17, 2008
"Thank you for contacting us. You are certainly someone to be admired, and I'm sure that our contacts would be very interested in meeting you. I'm going to forward this mail to a few Heads of Departments at the various universities, as it would be of most benefit to you, and them."
From: Derick Poremba-Brumer, a survivor of severe brain injury, South Africa
Date: Jan 18, 2008
"Thank you for contacting me. I'm not such a fundi on anything technological matters as you are (that just means that I'm very impressed at your techie knowledge). I'm looking forward to meeting you."