Allison Surtees has good reason to look forward to a fortnightly trip from Te Awamutu to Hamilton.
It’s there she joins with other members of the Waikato Kōrero Club – an organisation which supports her and other people who live with a condition called aphasia.
Waikato community aphasia advisor Christa Grbin, centre with Jim Smith and Paula Crean.
Aphasia can make it hard for people to say what they are thinking, understand what is being said to them, read and write.
Waikato Community Aphasia Advisor Christa Grbin says aphasia is a language impairment caused by damage to the language area of the brain and can be caused by a stroke or brain injury or a tumour.
“Aphasia can make it hard for people to say what they are thinking, understand what is being said to them, read and write. Aphasia does not affect intelligence. People with aphasia know what they want to say, they just have greater difficulty accessing their vocabulary to say it.”
June is aphasia awareness month.
“We want people living in the community who suffer from aphasia to know that there are support groups and resources that can help you and your family.”
Allison Surtees says “people don’t know how to talk to you when you have aphasia… it’s hard to make new friends”.
It’s easier at the Kōrero club “because we’re all the same”
Katrina Smit, who attends the club to support her mother Miriam says “being here has made us feel not so alone.”
Members of the Waikato Kōrero Club; Emiliana Khoury, Katrina Smit, Miriam Smit and Allison Surtees.
