We’ve asked all six of the Bethnal Green Ventures teams to blog about their ideas here over the coming weeks.

First up, is Sam Van Rood and The Brain Support Network:

The Brain Support Network matches and links people who have survived and recovered from a stroke with patients who have just suffered a stroke.

Sam studied law, worked as a climate-change campaigner and was the founding project manager at Faculty of 1000, a network linking the world’s top medical scientists.

But the inspiration for The Brain Support Network, came from Sam’s personal experience of suffering a stroke at the age of 35. Key to his recovery was meeting other stroke survivors – however, it took him over a year to meet anyone who had had a similar experience because there is nothing that connects patients to one another.

Now, Sam wants to create a service that matches up survivors and those already recovering at the point where they most need support – as soon as they begin to rebuild their lives. He’s gathered together an advisory board which includes editor-in-chief of the British Medical Journal, Dr Fiona Godlee, along with some of the UK’s leading stroke and pain consultants. His next challenge is to work out the details of the service and start to gauge demand and supply of mentors.

The Brain Support Network is one of six early-stage social ventures we’re working with for 10 weeks at Bethnal Green Ventures Nightschool this autumn.

Keep an eye on this blog for future updates!