Asking for help is a sign of strength

DOUBLE OLYMPIC GOLD MEDALIST JAMES CRACKNELL TELLS LISA SALMON HOW CUTTING-EDGE SCANS AND COUNSELLING HAVE HELPED HIM REDISCOVER HIS OLD SELF AFTER A BRAIN INJURY

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RECOVERING from a traumatic brain injury has been a long journey for former Olympic rower James Cracknell.

But 15 years after the wing mirror of a fuel tanker smashed into his head as he was cycling in the US, the double Olympic gold medallist is close to being back to normal, following a gargantuan struggle to understand the way his injury affected his personality, mental health and capabilities.

It was a struggle that cost him his marriage to the TV presenter Beverley Turner, the mother of his three children, as the damage to the frontal lobe of his brain caused personality changes, memory problems, and epilepsy, as well as leaving him unable to recognise people's faces, and losing his sense of taste and smell.

But now, thanks to counselling, groundbreaking new scans that have helped identify his specific areas of brain damage and the behaviour linked to it, plus a simple acceptance that he needed help, the Olympian who once described himself as "the man who used to be James Cracknell" is now not far off being the original James again.

James, 52, recalls that after the accident: "My ex said to me 'you've become more of you, but if I'm looking honestly at my characteristics, they're stubborn, competitive, determined and pretty unforgiving - and if those characteristics are heightened, it's not good.

"They're very good traits in what I used to do, in a sporting environment, but they're not so useful for a happy family life.

"But I'm definitely more like I was before now than I was five years ago."