A personal battle with a brain haemorrhage and her daughter’s MS diagnosis
have prompted a Teesside mayor’s charity choices for her year in office.
New Redcar and Cleveland Mayor, Normanby councillor Carole Simms, has chosen the Multiple Sclerosis Society after daughter Jennifer was diagnosed with the condition about three years ago.
But the South Bank-born mum-of-three’s second choice is even more personal.
Cllr Simms said: “I chose Headway because I suffered from an extremely serious brain injury. I know just how fragile the human body is and how quickly your life can change.
“I was lucky, but not everyone is as fortunate as I was and the charity does fantastic work helping people recover from brain injuries.”
Cllr Simms was watching TV in June 2011 when she suffered a pain - later diagnosed as a brain haemorrhage - that she described as “like having a bolt hammered into the base of my skull.”
Within 24 hours, she was being prepared for an eight-hour surgical procedure, which was when the seriousness of her condition really hit home.
“It all happened so quickly,” she said. “One day I was fit and well, the next I was phoning my daughters from the hospital to tell them I was having brain scans.
"I was told I had 50/50 chance of surviving the intrusive neurosurgery, which included having an aneurysm in my brain clipped.
New Redcar and Cleveland Mayor, Normanby councillor Carole Simms, has chosen the Multiple Sclerosis Society after daughter Jennifer was diagnosed with the condition about three years ago.
But the South Bank-born mum-of-three’s second choice is even more personal.
Cllr Simms said: “I chose Headway because I suffered from an extremely serious brain injury. I know just how fragile the human body is and how quickly your life can change.
“I was lucky, but not everyone is as fortunate as I was and the charity does fantastic work helping people recover from brain injuries.”
Cllr Simms was watching TV in June 2011 when she suffered a pain - later diagnosed as a brain haemorrhage - that she described as “like having a bolt hammered into the base of my skull.”
Within 24 hours, she was being prepared for an eight-hour surgical procedure, which was when the seriousness of her condition really hit home.
“It all happened so quickly,” she said. “One day I was fit and well, the next I was phoning my daughters from the hospital to tell them I was having brain scans.
"I was told I had 50/50 chance of surviving the intrusive neurosurgery, which included having an aneurysm in my brain clipped.
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