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Home » January 2023

January 2023

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Welcome to 2023! Keep up to date with some January updates!

South London ‘A Newfound Mind’ Rehearsal on 17/01/23

We’re planning an upcoming project with The Place (Dance Company)

A small group of BA students from the London School for Contemporary Dance will explore devising process towards making a piece of dance theatre with you. 

The sessions will take place between May and June 2023 in London.  Sessions will run for three hours once a week with a break for tea and coffee and snacks.

Sessions will take place at Chandlers Hall and at The Place, London.

Let mairead@rosettalife.org know if you’d like to be involved!



Masterclass with Emma-Louise

Emma-Louise will be leading an online masterclass on March 7th at 12pm.

If you would like to attend, please book ahead by emailing us at mairead@rosettalife.org


Your space to share art work and poetry.

Send your work to Mairéad at anytime of the month for the next newsletter at mairead@rosettalife.org


As I lay in bed

As I lay in bed
I checked the time
As I lay in bed
Late, but sleep avoids me
I wind up my clock
“You’re a stupid clock” I say
It works it seems, the clock is ticked off
And yet I envy its complicated simple cogs and springs
All its parts working, functioning well
Unlike my disjointed soul and body
As I lay in bed
Late, but sleep avoids me

Martyn Cooper, Reading Ambassador


Reading ambassador Fiona painted pottery!


Ambassador Foci

This newsletter we are publishing the short biographies Mairéad has been collecting for the website. Please contact mairead@rosettalife.org if you’d like to share a short bio for the website!

Haide grew up in the Philippines, and then she went to Lebanon in 1995 to be a domestic helper. Then in 2000, the family she helped in Lebanon had grandchildren and she moved to the UK to be a nanny for them. In 2011, she had a stroke and was in St Mary’s and Charing Cross hospital for 3 weeks. She joined SpeakAbility and Headway, and then started a volunteering job at Brain Association where she visits people in their homes. In 2014, Haide had another stroke. In 2016, Haide joined Rosetta Life, did the 12-week programme and became an Ambassador. Since then, in 2020, Haide had a third stroke.

‘Brain Odysseys helps me because they make me happy. I know people want me there and I made friends. I have been able to visit hospitals and medical centres like Pulross centre, and help patients there too’.

Christina was born in Ghana and moved to the UK via Switzerland in 1989. She was a care-worker for the elderly at Battersea Bridge House for 20 years. Christina’s primary hobby and passion is dress-making. She said that this was much easier before her brain haemorrhage but she still tries to do it to help keep her brain busy. She was part of a stroke survivors group and through them, in 2013, she found out about Rosetta Life. The best thing about being an Ambassador, according to Christina, is ‘the way they train us in dance, song and other creative skills. They keep our minds are busy. Everyone’s mobility is different but they have the patience for us and allow us to express our dreams and help us achieve them’.

Sam was a contract manager in Axis security. In 2014, he went on holiday to Ghana and this is when his stroke happened. He spent over a month in hospital in Ghana, then one day the doctors said it was okay to travel back. When he arrived back he stayed in Lewisham hospital for a month and was then discharged. 

Sam was invited to see a performance by his friend Marek, who he met in Aphasia Reconnect, and after the performance, Melanie approached him and asked him to join.

‘The atmosphere is great at Brain Odysseys, everybody is inclusive. Through singing and acting, they helped me with my speech’.

Born 1948 in Norwich, Norfolk, Leslie Worked as a waiter in my early days, and later in Human Resources. He has also done some amateur script writing and poetry as extracurricular activities. ‘I had a stroke in 2011 when I was 63. I have since been retired. I joined Rosetta life in 2016 and have been a stroke ambassador ever since. Writing and performing with other stroke ambassadors we have found comradeship and been able to share our experiences’.


A few of the ambassadors have launched a new initiative at Royal Berkshire Hospital and run a monthly Ambassadors café in the hospital gym.  Ambassadors lead art-making, singing and movement exercises and afterwards make time to talk about what life is like after being discharged from the hospital ward and what support groups are available in the community.


Bristol Stroke Ambassadors are about to launch a new performance programme using dance and poetry to create an immersive art installation about care and how we care for each other.  This project has been supported by Arts Council of England and involves an exciting collaboration with Bristol Black Carers.


A Newfound Mind Rehearsal

Tuesday 21st February

Chandler Hall, 5 Lambeth Walk, SE11 6DU at 1:30-4pm


English National Ballet sharing and performance

Friday February 24th

Time and transport TBC


Online Masterclass with Emma-Louise

Tuesday March 7th at 12pm (register by emailing mairead@rosettalife.org)


A Newfound Mind Rehearsal

Tuesday March 14th

Chandler Hall, 5 Lambeth Walk, SE11 6DU at 1:30-4pm


A Newfound Mind Rehearsal

Tuesday March 14th

Chandler Hall, 5 Lambeth Walk, SE11 6DU at 1:30-4pm


A Newfound Mind Rehearsal

Tuesday April 11th

Chandler Hall, 5 Lambeth Walk, SE11 6DU at 1:30-4pm


Performance at the Guildhall 

Wednesday April 12th

Time and transport TBC


Monthly Film

Every month we will share a film. You can visit the essential viewing section of the Rosetta Life website www.rosettalife.org for further viewing. We always enjoy hearing your feedback.

This month we share Spirals.

Rosetta Life Stroke Ambassadors explore how the idea of the spiral embodies their lived experience of illness. In this film, their own camerawork, lyric writing, singing, dancing and image-making witnesses the two-steps-forward-one-step-back story of recovery from brain-injury. This remarkable performance shows what can be learnt and achieved online, under lockdown conditions and, crucially, the welcome return of face-to-face live sessions when lockdown was finally lifted.