A Life Re-Written

Poster girl (literally) for Action for Brain Injury Week, May 2024.

It was all ‘hush hush’ until the end of last month but I can now go public with the tremendous news that Goodrum & Merryweather is featuring in a national awareness-raising campaign for the charity Headway, the Brain Injury Association.

I’ve been under media embargo for several weeks and months and had to tiptoe down to London back in April 2024 to record a short film (interviewed by the television celebrity-du-jour, BBC Traitors finalist Andrew Jenkins) and participate in a photo shoot with some of my hats. What a privilege and pleasure to be asked to represent this important and excellent charity and to be one of the faces of its Action for Brain Injury Week (ABI Week), which took place from 20-26th May 2024. I am thankful to be in a position to share my story as a brain tumour survivor and to acknowledge how millinery has featured positively in my ‘re-written’ life post-operatively. Millinery has given me new skills, new friends and new horizons. Headway has given me support, information and encouragement along the way. A great combination.

It was fascinating to spend time filming my interview with a producer, director and entourage from the broadcast agency TBIMedia and to peek behind the scenes for a short while. Having my portrait taken by campaign photographer David Baker was also a new, and intriguing, experience. So, millinery has, yet again, opened new doors and forged fresh experiences. The silver lining continues to unfurl in unexpected and extraordinary ways.

Making Headway

‘Wide Blue Yonder’ statement sinamay boater by Goodrum & Merryweather in aid of Headway. Exhibited at The Forum, Norwich, March 2024.

Collaboration is always a pleasure and, so the theory goes, it is also fundamental to creativity and creative success. Recently, I’ve put theory into practice, through a charitable partnership with Headway (Norfolk and Waveney branch), the not-for-profit organisation that ‘Improves Lives Impacted by Brain Injury’.

Headway has been a source of advice and support to me personally these past five years during my recovery from Acoustic Neuroma. As soon as I learned of Headway’s intention, then, to stage a fundraising art exhibition and silent auction in the spectacular setting of The Forum, right around the corner from me in Norwich, I jumped at the chance to be involved and to return a little of the kindness I have been shown by the charity. Artists – with milliners included in the definition – were invited to donate artworks, which would be exhibited in a group show from 4th-7th March 2024. Pieces might be acquired through a sealed bid system, all in aid of the noble and excellent Headway cause.

For my contribution, I decided to make a large, show stopping, hat, in the form of a statement boater (18 inches diameter) both to catch the eyes of the visiting public (refer to image) but also not to be dwarfed in the cathedral-like dimensions of The Forum. I selected a sky-blue colour to match the Headway logo and livery. This was also a good opportunity to try out the ruffled veiling technique that I’ve been waiting to deploy for some time; I used more than four metres (that’s a lot) of veiling for the trim. The hat is called ‘Wide Blue Yonder’, evoking the idea that, with brain injury, comes the great and gaping unknown but, so too, comes alternative, positive, possibilities, broadened horizons and, on occasion, a hint of blue sky.