Teresa’s Story
‘It was very important to me when I was a patient for people to treat me like a human being, seeing me and not just what had happened to me. That’s what CoDa does.’
In 2018, aged 64, Teresa woke up one day to discover she was unable to move her legs.
After being rushed to hospital, she was diagnosed as having quadriplegic Guillain Barre Syndrome and went on to spend four and a half months in intensive care, paralysed from the neck down.
It was later, when Theresa was transferred to the Royal Hospital for Neuro-disability as a residential in-patient, that she first took part in a CoDa dance session on the ward.
‘I met the CoDa team when they came in for a class one morning and we all sat round in a circle and they played music – I love music anyway – and we did some dance. It was such fun! The CoDa team were so good with the patients – including those that couldn’t move very much. I enjoyed it so much that every time they came I went to their classes.’
Now discharged from the hospital, Teresa works regularly with the CoDa team as one of their Lived Experience Consultants, helping shape the work they create.
‘We started off by talking about our own experiences and, even though we all have very different experiences, we found a common link: we wanted people to realise the journey we had been on.
We wanted to be seen. I’m not a patient, I’m not a resident, I’m Teresa and I have a life.’
Going through the project from beginning to end and pulling it all together, through dance, has been very special. Through their dance, through their exercises, and the way they treat people- it’s just lovely.’