Introduction to Hannah’s Book: 24 Hour Day

Hannah Deakin is a Protégé. She was referred to us as a young person who has not been able to access mainstream education due to a netball injury which she sustained at secondary school. Hannah’s story is highly unusual as she not only endured pain at the time of the accident but has endured pain ever since.

Hannah experiences pain for every minute of every single twenty four hour day.

Hannah is special, like so many Protégé students she accepts her situation but doesn’t let this compromise her creativity and cerebral prowess. Protégé has worked with her to develop her writing skills and tell the story from her side of the hospital curtain.

 This is a story of a medical condition from the inside looking out, seeing the nurses, doctors and drugs that dominate Hannah’s day as she clings to her sense of self as a young woman and not just a patient. All the while she continues in her unceasing quest to overcome the pain that she is fighting. As an individual Hannah is a continual fighter, as a student of Protégé she is an inspiration to other Protégé students who hear of her situation and follow her progress on Protégé website.

Hannah’s rare condition is know as Complex Regional Pain Syndrome. The medical issues surrounding her situation are explored here in an introduction by a leading specialist in the field, Professor Candy McCabe (also a Protégé trustee).

This manuscript is a sample of work that Protégé is developing further with the expertise of Professor McCabe. For the next stage we hope to attract interest from publishers as we believe that this highly unusual story of the claustrophobic world behind the hospital curtain would be of interest to a wider medical and non-medical audience who, like us, would be moved, informed and inspired by Hannah’s optimism and endeavour. 

What the students say…

Here’s a few comments so far from our students:

‘It was fun, I learnt that you can make a better film if you plan it!’

‘I learnt how to feel confident in front of the camera and how to make a one minute clip.  I felt it was fun.’

‘Today I have edited my movie and made it look really nice.  I would have liked a bit more time to do that.’

‘I learnt a lot of things – too many to explain’

www.protegetv.co.uk

 

On the shoot…

Protégé 12^th May 2010

Today was so much better than yesterday! Probably better than the first day as we have got to know them a bit better now and they really got stuck in to their individual jobs and from what I saw they really enjoyed themselves.

We went out to film the advert with the students and to my surprise the students did the whole thing! They done the filming directing, assisting director, soundman, actors, absolutely everything they was brilliant.

I think everybody took notice on what the students said about being “miserable” and I think we all kind of tried to understand the funny side of things ( I even ended up having to walk out of the room in a fit of laughter!!) and yesterday before leaving we all sat down to discuss what went wrong, and they didn’t exactly get told of but they were shown that the way they acted is not acceptable behaviour, and I think that really hit them. they understand the rules more now and they all got on so much better.

I actually LOVED today I really enjoyed myself and I think I learned from the students about as much as they learned from their lessons

Really really good day!

Amy Rae 

www.protegetv.co.uk