A STROKE OF GENIUS
Artist teaches himself to sketch with other hand TWO DAYS after attack
ARTIST Barry Morgan taught him self to paint left handed – two days after a stroke left him unable to use his right.
The 73-year-old Navy veteran collapsed at his home in Largs, Ayrshire, 10 months ago.
His initial thought when he got to hospital wasn’t would he live or die but would he be able to draw and paint?
Barry couldn’t feel his right hand so the first thing he did was ask for paper so he could try to draw with his left.
He said: “I managed it very quickly.
“It was very important to me to draw and paint again. I used to run an art club in Largs and had about 30 members so it was important I kept going afterwards.”
But the biggest concern to medics was his speech.
Barry said: “There seemed to be a block between my brain and my mouth. I had to get used to words again, and to be honest, I’m still getting used to some words.”
Barry served for 12 years on submarines and minesweepers before working in the oil and gas industry but art has always been his passion.
On May 1 last year, Barry’s wife Lynne found him lying on the floor. He had suffered a transient ischaemic attack.
Barry said: “I woke up and was about to get up and the next thing I knew I was on the floor.
“I had no symptoms or warning signs.
“I didn’t know what had happened at first.”
He spent two weeks at Inverclyde Royal in Greenock being treated and receiving help with speech and reading.
His right hand has recovered and is now strong enough to hold a paintbrush.
Chest Heart and Stroke Scotland have helped Barry through sessions with community support co-ordinator Allison Lee.
He joined their online support group for stroke patients which meets weekly online.
Barry said: “The group has become a lifeline.” ●For more about CHSS call its Freephone Advice Line on 0808 801 0899.
EX-OFFENDERS are being exposed to temperatures as low as -10C to keep them on the straight and narrow.
An organisation linked to the Scottish Prison Service is using cold water therapy to help rehabilitate former convicts.
Known as the Wim Hof technique, it involves plunging ex-prisoners in a freezing river for up to three minutes at a time to shock their systems and help them improve their will-power. The therapy, named after a Dutch extreme athlete who invented it, teaches them to control their thoughts and breathing to be able to withstand the extreme cold.
In doing so, it helps them deal better with traumatic incidents from their past, including serious and violent abuse and addiction. The programme is the brainchild of Natalie Logan MacLean, chief executive of Sustainable Interventions Supporting Change Outside (SISCO), a Glasgowbased organisation that supports the liberation of ex-prisoners.
It works in partnership with the Scottish Prison Service to help former criminals get back on their feet. Natalie, 33, told how, once a week, they take a group of 30 hiking at the Campsie Fells then they plunge into the River Carron.
She added: “Cold water therapy is one of several strategies we use to help them come to terms with who they are and what they’ve done.”