Ever wondered how Health and Safety for Beginners started? If you have, here's the story from our founder John Johnston (i.e. me)...
Accidents Don't Need to Happen
After suffering a back injury at work in 2002, my life changed in an instant and would never be the same.
The accident itself was not a spectacular event by any means, there was no machinery involved, no explosions, no falls from a great height, no blood and guts, just a manual handling task I had done a few times before. All I had to do was lift a heavy steel beam from the floor up a few inches and onto a wooden pallet. A dual lift with a colleague. We both managed the task and carried on with our Friday. The next day, Saturday, I felt crippled and couldn't get out of bed because of the unbearable pain. Not so good when my daughter was in her cot crying for food and a nappy change!
It turns out I had slipped two discs causing me to spend the next 2 ½ years virtually housebound living on Incapacity Benefit.
Naturally this placed incredible strain on home life for my wife and young daughter (two years old at the time), not only in monetary terms, but simple things like going shopping, visiting friends and family, pulling up socks, or even lifting a full kettle. All the things many people take for granted. The hardest part of these years was not being able to lift, carry or play easily with my young daughter who had no concept of why her mum could and I couldn't. Kids are amazing creatures though; she was OK with the limited physical activities we could do together.
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