Acclaimed guitarist Tom visits spinal unit
Internationally known guitarist, Tom Doughty was in Shropshire this week to inspire people with spinal injuries.
The slide guitarist, who suffered paralysis in a road accident in 1974 when he was 17, tours the UK and internationally and will appear at Ronnie Scott's this weekend.
His visit to the Midlands Centre for Spinal Injuries at the Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt Orthopaedic Hospital near Oswestry was part of a tour that is taking in a dozen centres in the country during the year.
The musician spent the day at the centre taking along guitars and equipment for 10 people.
He also donated a guitar and adaptive equipment to the centre and several instructional videos as well as stressing his philosophy, If I cant do it, you can do it, to the patients.
In a recent book - Inspiring Lives - Mr Doughty wrote: "I’m just a bloke who had this spinal injury 43 years ago. I’m not a hero, I’m a musician.
"I work in an area where my disability is, for the most part, irrelevant."
He said playing guitar from the age of seven, self taught, his guitar was his constant companion and he hoped to become a musician.
"On the way to work one morning I was involved in a road accident and immediately became paralysed from the chest downwards from a spinal injury and had no finger movement. I thought that breaking my neck put paid to all that musician malarkey. However, I was alive and life went on. I commenced the rest of my life as a disabled person and started to get on with it. In the early days after my injury the loss of use in my hands was, for me, the most difficult thing to come to terms with. In the usual assessment of dexterity they are rubbish – a claw-like right hand and no movement in the left."
He said shortly after his hospital discharge a guitar was adapted so it could be played flat on his knee and a piece of tube on his forefinger changed the pitch.
Through years of persistence and hard work, he developed his own unique way of approaching and playing his instrument to make music accessible to all.
He worked full time in social work until taking early retirement in 1999 and becoming a professional lap slide guitarist, recording artist, singer/songwriter and lap slide guitar teacher.
"The rewards to me are amazing - to be known in the world as the musician I dreamed of being as a child despite being a tetraplegic. My disability forces me to be a more creative and resourceful musician. I think out of the box and, if anything, my disability strengthens my musicianship."
He believes that for those with spinal injuries, the skills, fitness and strength required to play a slide guitar can offer a stimulating and motivating rehabilitation tool. “When someone has a Spinal Injury, it is a time of massive change and upheaval in life, yet it is also an opportunity to have time to learn and re learn new ways to be creative”.
