Barry Makes Every Second Count

Barry West had a career in gardening taken away from him at the age of 19, when he sustained life-changing injuries in a car accident.

In hospital for almost a year, he’s paralysed from the shoulders down. Perennial has been there to help him on what’s been a remarkable story of someone overcoming adversity to make the most of his life. Now a mouth painting artist, Bazza, as he likes to be called, is an inspiration.

The accident left Barry in an induced coma for over three months. For much of his time in hospital, he was placed in skull traction, able only to move his eyes.

He woke up to face a future paralysed from the shoulders down. He is a determined man though, and when one of his gardening customers presented him with a computer, he found a way, with our support, to start living life to the full.

Since then he has carried the Olympic torch, been scuba diving, and become the first man paralysed from the shoulders down to complete an ascent of Ben Nevis.

Barry couldn’t be more appreciative of the support he’s received from us over the years.

Barry West, outside his art studio
Barry West with examples of his paintings