In The Longest battle Emma Martins chats with people who have gone through a similar life changing situation to her own when Emma caught a virus in 2013 which completely changed her life for ever. 

 

The virus that Emma caught in Vietnam caused a brain aneurysm which in turn has severely affected Emma’s eyesight.

 

This week in The Longest Battle Emma is chatting with Chef John Lawson, who trained with Raymond Blanc before moving to New York, then spending time in Australia with Gordon Ramsay, enjoying the high life, and even having his own restaurant, No. 8 in Melbourne. After a big night out John came home and suffered a seizure. Thankfully a neighbour helped his girlfriend move him and the next thing John can remember is waking up with paramedics around him, telling John that he had a shadow on his  brain. A biopsy came back with Cancer in his frontal lobe and the biopsy caused a stroke which then caused brain damage. An operation followed to remove the cancer and John then had to rebuild his life and his connection with food.

 

John is now back in the UK and has set up a new restaurant , Food by John Lawson in Leigh-on-Sea.

 

In The Longest Battle with John Lawson we will hear how John started his career in the catering industry, working with Gordon Ramsay and having his own restaurant in Melbourne. Then we will hear about that night when John had the seizure and the operation on his brain that followed, his recovery, rehabilitation and how long it took John to get back to some form of normal life again. 

 

We will also find out how meditation has helped John, both to keep his brain healthy and also in general life too.  

 

Finally we will hear about John’s new relationship with food, all about his new restaurant in Leigh-on-Sea and the advice he would give to someone else going through a similar life changing situation to the one he had out in Australia.

 

If you would like to know more about how Emma has coped with her own longest battle, do visit Emma's website https://www.thelongestbattle.co.uk

(Image shows RNIB logo. 'RNIB' written in black capital letters over a white background and underlined with a bold pink line, with the words 'See differently' underneath)