On 21st June last year my lovely sister, Karen suffered a
catastrophic, life changing brainstem bleed and stroke. Luckily,
she had the ability to raise the alarm before falling unconscious.
She was rushed to Kings College Hospital and underwent emergency brain surgery. There were further complications with hydrocephalus and swelling of her brain that required more surgery to relieve pressure and reduce further brain damage.

A brainstem stroke is a very serious stroke that affects many
of the core functions of the body such as breathing, temperature regulation, mobility, speech, vision and more. Karen’s was caused by undiagnosed high blood pressure.

For many months she was looked after in critical care and barely regained consciousness. After 5 months she was transferred to the Royal Hospital for Neuro-Disability www.RHN.org.uk in Putney. She had very limited response or mobility, was unable to speak, and was fed via a feeding tube. 

The staff and facilities at the RHN have been amazing. The progress that Karen has made over the last 9 months has exceeded our expectations. Karen still has a long road ahead, but she is now able to breathe unaided, hold herself up, move both arms and legs and with the brilliant speech therapists she has started to talk and communicate. She has also progressed onto some drinks and liquid food. Next steps are to regain more mobility, continue with speech therapy and work on her eating.

The RHN is funded largely by charitable donations, they work with anyone that has serious brain trauma and have patients that have had serious strokes, brain injuries, road accidents or other neurological problems. Their therapists
and carers are world class and they organise days out and entertainment for patients to stimulate and encourage their recovery.

In support of their work and to express our gratitude for all that they have done for Karen, a small group of us are doing the Thames Path Bridge challenge on Sat 9th September - a 25Km sponsored walk starting at Putney and crossing every bridge in central London finishing at Tower Bridge.

 A Justgiving page has been created and we would like to raise as much money as possible to support the RHN in helping patients who have also suffered from similar life changing events. If you would like to donate via the Justgiving page, we would be very grateful.  

Donating through JustGiving is simple, fast and totally secure. Your details are safe with JustGiving - they'll never sell them on or send unwanted emails. Once you donate, they'll send your money directly to the charity. So it's the most efficient way to donate - saving time and cutting costs for the charity.