Ellen Murphy, who performs under the pseudonym Only Girl, has released the emotional music video for her new single Mountains.
The video depicts the recovery of Ellen's husband Jamie McKechnie, who sustained a serious brain injury in an unprovoked attack in 2011.
After spending nine weeks in a coma, Jamie had to relearn how to walk and talk. He was left with lasting physical and cognitive difficulties, but Ellen stood by his side every step of the way.
Her emotional single Mountain reflects on the toughest moments of the couple's lives, and how staying strong for each other helped them to pull through.
"When I perform this song, it's always incredibly emotional and usually brings me close to tears," Ellen said. "It's almost like I relive the feelings every time I sing it.
"I wrote this song at one of the darkest times in my life, to always try and keep myself strong and hold onto hope that things could get better for Jamie.
"Performing this song is almost like a sort of therapy, continuously helping me to process the range of emotions that I feel towards what happened to Jamie and how it impacted on both of our lives.
"As recovery from brain injury is such a long and uncertain road, the only way I saw to cope with it was to hold on with the utmost hope that things could get better.
"To see Jamie come so far and start living an independent life, despite the challenges he still faces, is utterly inspiring and keeps me strong as well."
Jamie said: "When I hear Mountain it just makes me think of how strong Ellen has been for me. I'm so proud of her and how she's stood by me through everything and I couldn't have done it without her pushing me every step of the way.
"It was really hard to watch back the footage of myself at rehab as I don't really remember a lot of that time and it doesn't even seem like that was me. But it helps me to see how far I've come since then and makes me feel like I could make even more recovery in the future."
Mountains is the second track to be released in recent months where the artist's personal experience is used to raise awareness of the devastating effects of brain injury.
At the end of last year, hip-hop artist Asher X released True Romance, a track based on her thoughts and emotions during a difficult train ride to be by her boyfriend's bedside in hospital.
Her boyfriend Peter had gone home to Leicester to mark the one year anniversary of his mother's passing, when he was assaulted in an unprovoked attack.
Peter continues to recover thanks to unwavering support of Asher and advice from Headway.
All proceeds from True Romance will be donated to Headway to support its work to improve life after brain injury.
Back
