• Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) is caused if the head receives a severe blow or jolt and the brain is damaged. TBI may result from a road traffic accident, sports injury, fall or assault.
• Other forms of Acquired Brain Injury (ABI) - an ABI is any brain injury that occurs since birth. There are many possible causes, including stroke, haemorrhage, infection, hypoxic/anoxic brain injury and medical accidents.

• Loss of movement in the legs or arms
• Reduced speed of thought; issues with memory, understanding, concentration and solving problems
• Communication problems - loss of speech or impaired speech
• Changes in emotional reaction and behaviour. These are more difficult to see than the more obvious problems such as those which affect movement and speech but can be the most difficult for the individual concerned, and crucially their family to deal with.
• Social isolation - the result of many of these clinical effects is that people with a brain injury can often be socially isolated. They may lose their confidence, they can be ostracised by their community becuase they may look different, have trouble speaking or display challenging behaviour.

• Solvers – anyone willing to join a team to help brainstorm and develop ideas for new products and services i.e. age, background and profession are irrelevant. You do not need to be an inventor, entrepreneur, scientist, engineer or even in business.
• Sages – people with expertise who are willing to donate some of their time to help the solvers (e.g. experts in design, engineering, business, law, clinical/medicine).
• Supporters – organisations, individuals or groups of individuals who are willing to donate some money to support Headway via the Challenge. See supporter rates below.
• Seekers - people who have a brain injury (Headway's clients) and would like to improve their quality of life

Mind Your Head is taking place in 3 main stages:

Supporter benefits i.e. everyone making a financial contribution, will be acknowledged by having their logo (or, in the case of individuals, their photo if they wish) and personal or company description listed on the Mind Your Head website as well as on any documentation such as flyers and posters promoting the MYH Challenge. Research suggests that MYH will attract significant interest from across the county as well as from the regional and national press.

Supporters, solvers and sages will also:

• Make new business contacts
• Extend their networks
• Acquire new skills
• Make friends
• Have fun
• Make a valuable contribution to society

Mind Your Head is being run in partnership with the Cambridge Brain Injury Healthcare Technology Co-operative or HTC for short.

This government-backed programme, led by Professor John Pickard, Professor of Neurosurgery at the University of Cambridge, and hosted by Addenbrooke’s Hospital, is collaborating with patients and patient groups, charities and industry. The HTC will identify unmet clinical problems and develop new medical devices, healthcare technologies and technology-dependent interventions to improve treatment and quality of life for people with brain injury.

The HTC will achieve this by identifying gaps in the provision of products and services for people with brain injury and running a series of Dragons' Den style competitions for developers of technology.