NEWS RELEASE FOLLOWS:
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
RCMP WIDOW PROMOTES BRAIN INJURY AWARENESS MONTH
Victoria, BC, Canada May 7, 2004 -- June is Brain Injury Awareness month and an RCMP widow has written a book that poignantly takes the reader through the personal trauma of brain injury. A Change of Mind: One Family's Journey through Brain Injury (Lash & Associates, NC 2004) tells the story of Constable Gerald Breese, a 17 year veteran in the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, who sustained a severe brain injury in May, 1990, while on duty. He died five months later at the age of 37. His widow, Janelle Breese Biagioni, hopes that in telling his story the extraordinary grief endured by families and survivors of brain injury will come to light and ultimately, help prevent other families from going the same thing. Each year, approximately 36,000 Canadians sustain a brain injury as a result of car crashes, sports injuries, strokes, falls and physical violence.
Few authors have written with the frank honesty and directness of Janelle Breese Biagioni. This book offers a unique view into the emotions experienced by a wife and mother of two young children as she was thrust into the complex and confusing world of brain injury. Her description of the behavioral and cognitive changes that challenged Gerry Breese's ability to make sense of the world and resume life as a husband and father after he returned home are testimony to the complexity of the brain and its far reaching impact on all aspects of a survivor's life and that of the family.
With her survival of her husband's death, Janelle has become an expert on grief and loss and a leader in the brain injury community in Canada. Janelle received a Certificate in Death & Grief Studies at the Center for Loss & Life Transition in conjunction with Colorado State University in 2003. She conducts seminars on grief and loss and grief associated with brain injury. Her book concludes with a special section on grieving and mourning that will be useful for families as well as professionals and friends who counsel and support them. To order a copy of her book or for more information, contact Janelle through her website at www.soulwriter.com.
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Penticton Herald, March 10, 2003
Chicken Soup Story comes from Penticton
A Penticton woman's story was selected for inclusion in Chicken Soup for the Grieving Soul.
Janelle Breese Biagioni's contribution, Remember with Courage, was incorporated into the book released Feb. 13th, 2003.
Her story recounts how her two young daughters, with their insistence on celebrating Christmas in the face of the recent passing of their father, taught her more about grief and getting on with life than she could have taught them.
~Herald Staff
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