Impact!

In June 2016 we launched our first National Lottery Heritage Fund project to uncover the hidden history of brain injury. We produced a digital timeline, film, exhibition and oral histories. While we were researching, we learnt a lot about the First World War and how much this impacted on the understanding and treatment of brain injury. The soldiers in the war were suffering injuries unlike those seen before and medicine was struggling to keep up. We decided we would like to look at this in more depth and, with the centenary of the Armistice in 2018, we applied for further funding from the National Lottery Heritage Fund to study this.

Once again our Research Group set to the exciting task of uncovering more information. 'Impact! Brain Injuries and World War I' will research the untold history of the people of Cambridgeshire Regiment who received brain injuries, and the hospitals in Cambridge where they were treated.

We hope to have several outcomes as a the result of our research. These are:

  • Students from two local schools will write and star in a series of historical monologues which will tell the stories of these soldiers. We will film this and have it available, with an education pack, on our website so other schools can use it.
  • Illustration students at Anglia Ruskin University will produce a series of educational posters to promote our research which will be displayed on local Stagecoach buses. Their work will also be displayed in an exhibition at the Mumford Theatre and a book of their work will be developed.
  • We will commission a short film about the whole project to be shared across a range of media, which will inform viewers about the research and Headway Cambridgeshire.
  • Working with Cambridge 105 radio station, we will develop a podcast to showcase our research and talk about the process of completing research as a person with a brain injury.


Trip to The National Archives

Read about our research trip to The National Archives in London.

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Trip to UCL Hospital of Neurology

Read about our research trip to the archives of UCL's Hospital of Neurology.

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Who's Involved

See who we're working with on the project.

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Posters

See the bus posters designed by ARU students and watch a video which describes the creative process.

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Educational Toolkit

Access the educational toolkit on how to create drama productions based on historical research

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Podcast

Listen to the podcast developed in partnership with Cambridge 105 radio.

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Film

Watch our film.

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Publication

Check out the digital version of our research overview

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“ The Hospital Brain Injury Co-ordinator became someone who absolutely understood how I felt, I didn’t need to explain. I could talk about my fears and worries. She was such a great support through the difficult days, but could also celebrate the small step successes, which was important to me. ”