Personal Cards

I have been asked to write a little  piece about my 'personal cards' as I call them.

Thos of you who know me, will know that I have generalised dystonia, which means that I actually have a number of different types of dystonia. Two of these are laryngeal dystonia and oromandibular dystonia. This in turn means that my speech is quite bad these days and very incoherent, which makes shopping very frustrating at the best of times. I wanted to have something in my pocket with my name and address on so that if I was buying something in a shop I wouldn't need to struggle to explain who I was and where I live. With this in mind, a number of years ago when my speech became very bad, I decided to see if I could make up some kind of card with my details on and a short explanation of my condition. I hit on the idea of laminating a card the size of a credit card and put my brain into gear to try to get the wording correct. The basic idea is simple enough and could be tailored to anybody's individual needs or requirements.

One side of the card has my name, address, phone number and email address. The other side states "I have generalised dystonia which affects my movements. Please be patient. Thank you".

At the top of both sides of the card it states "Dystonia is a neurological problem".

If you feel that a 'personal card' with your own choice of words may be of help to you, please contact the office using the contact details on our 'Contact' page.

John Kirk

Committee Member