The official Ashley Bruce news
23rd Sep 2000
Musician's brave battle...
Few pop artists launch their careers with a song inspired by their brain surgeon.
Now he is hoping for chart-busting success with his first single - The Man Inside My Head.
The 27-year-old, who now lives in Silverdale Road, Earley, was born in Tilehurst. He grew up in Hildens Drive where his parents ran a shop - Sam Ollies.
He was working for an office furniture company in London Road before his first brain haemorrhage which happened while he was visiting his girlfriend, Anne Cattermole, in Sussex in December 1998.
Ashley says: "There was not a lot of build up.
"The people I was working with said there was a change in me a week before the haemorrhage because I was forgetting things losing my concentration. "I was sitting down watching a video on Damon Hill and stood up and thought 'where is the floor?' and bang! I collapsed.
"Within an hour and a half I was fighting for my life in an intensive care nit. "They told me I might die and it was very, very
I sobering."
Ashley was so close to death that at one time a priest was called to his bedside. But Ashley was angry, thinking people were writing him off, and he kept on fighting. The haemorrhage was a blood blister in his skull which was putting pressure on his brain and causing indescribable pain. To treat it surgeons at Hurstwood Park Hospital in Sussex, stopped the artery supplying the blister with blood by putting a clip on it. Then they drilled into the skull to drain off the blood. This procedure causes so much damage that part of Ashley's skull had to be replaced with metal plates.
A few months later he was out of hospital but he was still withdrawn
and his friends didn't think he was really cured.
He was invited to meet Formula One star Damon Hill. The day at the race track gave him a "huge lift" but, in a bizarre
coincidence, just two and a half hours after meeting the former world
champion racer, Ashley was fighting for his life again.
He had a second brain haemorrhage. Ashley said: "All the fear comes back
but the fear is exaggerated because you know what you went through the
first time."
He still had excessive cerebral fluid around the brain and surgeons
installed a permanent tube to drain it into his stomach.
In total he had five operations – one of them lasting 17-and-a-half hours.
After another five months in hospital he was able to start his life again.
But something had changed. He said: "I had always picked up the guitar or a piano but I am now more creative and focussed than I have ever been in my life. "Something happened when I was under the knife. There is no way to explain it.
"I just can't stop writing songs." He says his style is a cross between Brian Adams, Robbie Williams and Ronan Keating.
Two years after leaving hospital he feels fully recovered and has contacted record producers to kick-start his career.
He says he may write songs for boy bands as well as creating music for himself.
The music industry is tough but he is not intimidated. He says: "When you think you are going to die you come out more determined."
Spandau Ballet star turned EastEnder Martin Kemp emerged after his double brain tumour in the mid 90s with similar determination. Big fan Ashley has met another Spandau star - Tony Hadley. He now wants to meet Kemp as well. Ashley says: "He went through something very similar. He was a big inspiration to me when I was in hospital."
Ashley's music featured on 2TEN-FM last week and you can also find it on peoplesound.com.
