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Wednesday 26 June 2013



My brother in law who is Italian, aged 61 has recently had a stroke .
I would be grateful for any help on information ie to translate english apps to Italian .

Thank you, Tom Pringle


Tuesday 4 June 2013

This message is posted anonymously by AphasiaNow to protect the family concerned. 


Hi, 

I wonder if you could help us. 

My mum, who lives in the .... area, has recently been diagnosed with Primary Progressive Aphasia. 

My sister and I, and our respective families feel that we need to be better equipped with knowledge and advice in order to support her and understand the condition more effectively than we do at the moment, including helping her to come to terms with the diagnosis which has not yet really happened. We have encouraged her to get in contact with you herself but she won't hear of it, mainly because she thinks it would be a waste of time, as she thinks you focus mainly on Aphasia as a result of stroke/ brain injury etc, and that no one will know anything about her particular form of aphasia. 

But my sister and I were still hoping that you may be able to help us. We have read up on everything we can about PPA online - mainly research from the USA - but have so many questions and concerns that we would like to talk though with someone who understands the condition better than we do. 

My mother is being seen by a doctor at the NHNN in London (it was there that she was diagnosed) but since her diagnosis in November 2012, she has not had another appointment and won't be seen again until June/July this year, so we are feeling somewhat in limbo at the moment. She has been promised speech therapy too, but despite all our efforts has still not received any on the NHS, and we are keen to arrange something privately to tide us over until we see her doctor in June/July. We fully understand that there is no cure and she will not get any better (although we are not sure she believes this) but even so we are hopeful that speech therapy could help and certainly not do any harm. 

We also suspect she is suffering from depression as a result of her speech issues and the problems PPA causes her - she sees it as a failing in her, and lacks self-confidence as a result. She is 69, only retired a couple of years ago, is full of energy and fit and healthy in other respects, but had suffered from speech problems for about 6 years prior to the diagnosis. She was a high powered, dynamic leader in her professional field and eventually retired as she found speaking at conferences and meetings increasingly difficult. 

Is there anything you can do to help? - perhaps to put us in touch with someone we could meet to talk to about the PPA and to get some advice on the best approach to helping mum and moving things forward. We are also interested in making contact with a speech therapist in Gloucestershire who has prior experience with PPA - if such a person exists. 

I do hope you don't mind me getting in touch. I woud quite understand if PPA is not your field and there is nothing you can do, but I thought it was worth a try. I was delighted to come across your website and was encouraged by the amazing work you are doing. 

Best wishes, and thanks for reading this, NB