Our mum Adelaide

In March 2018 our lives changed forever - the journey we were about to take was going to be rough. We didn't know where it would lead us too.

Our Mum is very active & healthy so on Monday 5th March when she collapsed, we were in total shock.

Mum had just picked up her grand children from school and had taken them home, when my sister returned from work to find Mum slumped at the dining table. This is when our nightmare started.

My sister called for an ambulance for them not to arrive, cutting a long story short. My Dad, Brother in law & Sister drove Mum to the hospital for them to diagnose what had happened to Mum.

Mum has never drank alcohol, nor smoked and doesn't take medication. She's hardly ever ill or sick. She keeps herself busy helping my sisters, looking after the grand children, helping her neighbours and friends.

Mum had suffered a stroke, but then the hospital couldn't get hold of an ambulance to transfer Mum to the Specialist Stroke Hospital that they needed to transfer patients too. The countdown was on 4 hours we had to get her there so they could give her a special medication.

You'll have seen the adverts on TV about acting FAST with a stroke but the hospital couldn't get her an ambulance in time.

Our hearts were breaking as we watched Mum and we couldn't do anything to help her. We feel totally let down by the system.

Mum eventually got a transfer and over the next two weeks she started to make amazing progress. She was then transferred back to our local hospital for Stroke Rehabilitation. Again she continued to break down barriers with her progress. Over the fortnight, we all felt like we were getting Mum back.

We had made plans for the next steps in Mum's rehabilitation and in the next four weeks she would be returning home. But then tragedy struck Mum had further strokes........ this was horrendous news as the rehabilitation hospital missed it and again the opportunity to give Mum the medication to disperse the blood clot was another incident where we felt let down.

We were then told that the next 24hrs were critical and we just knew when the Doctors said that they were very sorry the end was coming.

Mum didn't look sick or in any pain, she just looked like she was sleeping. My Dad and Sister stayed with Mum right to the end, cuddling her, holding her hands and telling Mum how much she is loved. This was so heartbreaking for us all.

Our Mum has a beautiful soul and always made time to help others. We love and miss her dearly. As a family we feel let down, there was nowhere to go for help, support or advice. We were just trying to make the best of a terrible situation.

A huge piece of our family is missing now and we feel the pain every second, of every minute, of every hour, of every day. We know in time we will eventually learn how to manage and continue our lives. We just hope and pray that in the name of our beautiful Mum, we can try to offer help, advice and support to other families who find themselves affected by a stroke. As we have recently found out that a stroke is not defined by age, ability, race or gender. Strokes can affect anyone at any time.

As a family we have decided that we would like Mum's name to live on. In order to acheive this we have set up a charity in Mums honor known as The Adelaide Law Foundation, We will be taking part and hosting a wide variety of fundraising events throughout the year - all to support those touched by strokes. We welcome donations however small to help us make a difference in the name of our Mum - Adelaide. Thank you for taking the time out of your day to read this. Just your acknowledgement of reading our page gives us the strength to carry on and if you are in a position to make a donation - with our thanks please take with you a little satisfaction that you have helped make it that bit easier for Stroke patients and their families to access support, help and guidance. The funds that we raise will be donated to Stroke Rehabilitation Units on behalf of our mums charity The Adelaide Law Foundation, Thank you.